Bangladesh Cricket Board disallows Steve Smith’s participation in Bangladesh Premier League

Smith will have to miss out on participating in the next iteration of the Bangladesh Premier League as his selection seems to have violated a by-law. For the tournament, which will feature seven franchises and is all set to start on January 5th, Smith was drafted in as a replacement of Asela Gunaratne into the Comilla Victorians squad. But his selection was outside of the draft which is a violation of the tournament law. 

Franchises expressed their reservations during a meeting with the BPL governing council but since the GC members failed to convince the franchises the matter was forwarded to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to take a final decision.

"Yes, he is not available for us. We have received a mail in this regard last night," Victorian's chief executive Col AKM Zaki told Cricbuzz on Friday. 

A franchise source, however, said that they were planning to request the BCB to reconsider the decision. 

On the other hand, David Warner has already joined Sylhet Sixers and will also be leading the side. Warner and Smith are currently serving a ban of 12 months by Cricket Australia (CA) for their involvement in the ball tampering scandal in Capetown.