The new season of the Bangladesh Premier League T20 (BPL) is just around the corner, and only five days before the first match, the authority confirmed that there would be no Decision Review System (DRS) for any matches prior to the play-offs. This announcement came as a surprise to many, including Mohammad Salahuddin, coach of the Comilla Victorians, who expressed his dismay at the lack of DRS from the start of the tournament. A total of seven teams are set to compete in this season. The new edition will take place in three different venues across Dhaka, Chattogram, and Sylhet. Read: Bangladesh Cricket in 2022: A peak to begin with, then mostly downhill “Such a big cricket event, it would be a great pity if it does not have DRS,” Salahuddin said on Sunday during a practice session of his team. “One wrong decision could turn out to be fatal for a team’s chances of winning the tournament. The board has earned considerable money, so I think they should invest in DRS. Moreover, they had plenty of time before the BPL commences,” he added. It’s going to be the ninth edition of BPL. Read: Russell Domingo Steps Down as Bangladesh Head Coach The Victorians are the most successful team in BPL history, with three titles. Imrul Kayes, the left-handed opener, led the Victorians to the titles on two occasions. Salahuddin announced that they have yet to decide who will captain the team for the upcoming BPL season, but hinted that they will likely continue to depend on Imrul's leadership. Read More: BPL 2023: All Teams Squad, Captain, Players List details

There will be no technology available for the Decision Review System or DRS in this year’s edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), a member of the event's governing council revealed Friday. Due to the Covid-19 situation around the globe, the teams who run DRS will not be available to travel to Bangladesh for BPL, according to Ismail Haider Mallick, the member secretary of the current BPL governing council. DRS is used in every major event organized by the International Cricket Council. Every major T20 league also uses this technology to further eliminate the element of human error in umpiring decisions. Read: Bangladesh Cricket Captains: Performance Review for the Year 2021 “The technicians are not willing to travel to Bangladesh due to the Covid-19 situation,” Ismail told the media. “They are the only teams to operate DRS, and they are busy working somewhere else. We are also not sure whether DRS will be available for the home series against Afghanistan.” Besides DRS, this year’s BPL may also not feature any international umpires, while the coverage too may have to do without any foreign faces. Though Ismail has said they are trying to bring umpires from Sri Lanka or India, he was unsure about their availability. In that case, the onus will be on local umpires and commentators to fill those roles, which they can - but there are no local teams to run DRS.  In recent years the use of the technology has become so integral to the game that it is hard to imagine any top-level cricket in this day and age without DRS. Not only does it diminish the weight of the domestic franchise league by reintroducing the greater chance of human error, it also robs the game of the dramatic intervals that especially close DRS decisions have added to cricket. Read:Ottis Gibson to step down as bowling coach: BCB This year’s BPL is all set to begin on January 21 in Dhaka. A total of six teams will compete in this year's event, which is rebranded as Bangabandhu BPL for a second successive year, to celebrate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Matches will be played in three different venues across Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet.