Player protests in practices, matches, and hotels; Durbar Rajshahi has experienced a gut-wrenching rollercoaster whilst crashing out narrowly in the BPL 2025 edition. This new franchise, owned by Valentine group, brought heaps of local and international talents to their roster, bolstering one of the strongest starting lineups before the competition. However, these external factors reverberated throughout the camp, with local players boycotting practice in Chittagong and Foreign players omitting themselves against league leaders Rangpur. Owner Shafique Rahman expected to live out his wildest dreams. Instead, his worst nightmare is playing throughout, tarnishing the club’s run of immense form for them to bow out just by net run rate (NRR), the most unexpected and staggering shock in this edition. 

Durbar’s disorder began immediately, with the owning group not paying their local cohorts and providing just a microscopic percentage to their international marquee players. Mohammad Haris (Pakistan), Aftab Alam (Afghanistan), Mark Deyal (West Indies), Ryan Burl (Zimbabwe) and Miguel Cummins (West Indies) were registered for this edition but only a few of them received 25% of their entire salaries. Majority of the local players did not receive the mandatory ¼ of their wage set by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), which was reported by then captain Anamul Haque Bijoy. Even with requisitions from BCB, Durbar Rajshahi still failed to meet the deadlines for payment, resulting in local players boycotting their practice in Chittagong ahead of their clash with bottom sluggers Sylhet Strikers on 17th January. 

The BCB regulations state that franchises must pay all players 50% of their total fees before the start of the tournament, 25% during the tournament, and the remaining 25% after the tournament. None of these requirements were achieved by the franchise. This therefore led to major comments from the World Cricketers Association (WCA) CEO Tom Moffat. In a statement to ESPNCricinfo, Moffat mentioned, “It’s disappointing to hear about more non-payment issues in the Bangladesh Premier League, which has been a repeat offender over a number of years. These issues are unacceptable, they aren’t getting better, and it’s the players who make the event that are impacted. In any league that is officially sanctioned, players should have confidence that their contracts have some basic protections and minimum standards in them, and that they can be enforced efficiently.”

At the climax of this predicament arrived the match boycott from foreign players. With some of the international members not receiving any salary and others just receiving ¼ of their reimbursement, Durbar Rajshahi became the first side to have 11 local players fight against Rangpur Riders, league leaders at that time. Although they won that affair, this atrocious sight tainted the image of a revolutionary season. Even if Ryan Burl and Mohammad Haris returned to participate in the last game, the results were unfortunately insufficient as Khulna Tigers stormed their way in with a commanding NRR. 

Not only are these issues tarnishing the reputation of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), it is dismantling the rebuilding efforts done by the BCB since corruption scandals disturbed the introduction of the T20 franchise league. With talents like Jishan Alam, Anamul Haque, Tawaf Mashrafee, and more, Durbar Rajshahi hosts immense potential for the next season. However, with owners refusing to pay for the immeasurable talent, they risk losing these players during the auction. Can Durbar Rajshahi return back with a bang, or will bouncing checks bounce them out of the league?