Bangladesh Premier League (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ প্রিমিয়ার লিগ), also known as Dutch-Bangla Bank BPL for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). It was formed in 2011 by the BCB, after the suspension of its predecessor organisation, 2009/10 National Cricket League Twenty20. The first season was held in February 2012, and the games were held across Dhaka and Chittagong. The BPL is headed by the chairman of its Governing Council.

Following the success of franchise Twenty20 cricket leagues such as the Indian Premier League around the world, the Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a plan to replace the National Cricket League with a franchise-based league.^[1] On 18 January 2012, the board entered a 6-year, 350-crore deal with Game on Sports Group to establish a franchise tournament. The deal gave the group exclusive management rights to manage the tournament. The league was founded with six franchises from the largest cities of Bangladesh. During the franchise auction, nine companies took part in the bidding process, with six winning the rights to clubs.^[2]

In July 2022, after the ICC accommodated the month of January and February for the BPL, in its ICC Future Tours Programme, the BCB announced the schedule of the BPL for the next three seasons.

The first edition of the league officially kicked off on 9 February 2012, with a lavish opening ceremony at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Shariar Islam Mozumder Shawon was the owner and organizer of BPL.^[5] The initial player auction was held on 18 and 19 January 2012 and the first match in the tournament was staged on 9 February 2012 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium between Sylhet Royals and Barisal Burners. The first Bangladesh Premier League final game was between Dhaka Gladiators and Barisal Burners, with Dhaka Gladiators emerging as champions after winning by eight wickets. All matches in the first edition of the league were held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the country's second-largest city Chattogram.^[6]

Rangpur Riders were added as a seventh team for the second season. Dhaka Gladiators again emerged as champions beating Chittagong Kings in the final by 43 runs. Once again Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka hosted the final. For most of the matches, the MA Aziz Stadium, replaced the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram due to higher capacity and Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna (third-largest city) was added as the third venue.^[7]

The owners of Dhaka Gladiators were handed a lifetime suspension by the governing committee.^[8] A number of players and administrators were handed bans for match-fixing, including the former captain of Bangladesh, Mohammad Ashraful.^[9]

Following the match-fixing scandal and political issues of the country the league was not played in 2014. It returned in 2015 with six new franchises and it was held in the winter season unlike spring previously. Comilla Victorians won the competition, beating Barisal Bulls by three wickets. Leading up to the 2016–17 edition of the league, the Sylhet Super Stars, were suspended following breaches of disciplinary regulations,^[10] and two new franchises, Khulna Titans and Rajshahi Kings, were introduced, bringing the number of teams in the competition back to seven.

The 2016 BPL draft was held on 30 September. Prior to the draft, the seven clubs signed 38 foreign players to contracts and each existing franchise was able to retain two home-grown players from the 2015 season. A total 301 players participated in the draft, including 133 local and 168 foreign players. 85 players were selected in the draft. Dhaka Dynamites, captained by Shakib Al Hasan, topped the group stage table, whereas Rajshahi Kings, led by Darren Sammy, stood at the fourth position. Dynamites beat Khulna Titans in the Qualifier 1 and went to final. Rajshahi Kings defeated Chittagong Vikings and Khulna Titans respectively in Eliminator and Qualifier.

In Final after winning the toss, Kings' captain D. Sammy elected to field first. The Dynamites scored 159 runs in 20 overs with a loss of 9 wickets. They scored 23 runs in the opening partnership. Evin Lewis top scored for the Dynamites with 45 runs. Kings' bowler Farhad Reza took 3 wickets for 28 runs. The Kings failed to build a good opening partnership. After scoring 60 runs, they started losing wickets and couldn't hold on. The Dynamites won the match and their 1st title by a wide margin of 56 runs. Kumar Sangakkara was named the man of the match. This was the 3rd title for a Dhaka franchise in BPL.

Khulna Titans' skipper Mahmudullah was made the player of the tournament since he scored the second most runs (384) and defended less than 7 runs in the last over of the 2nd innings in more than one instance.

It was the fifth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). The competition was organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and featured seven teams from seven different cities. The season began on 4 November, and ended on 12 December 2017, with the defending champion, Dhaka Dynamites played against Sylhet Sixers in the first game at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.

Barisal Bulls were excluded from the tournament, after failing financial terms and conditions.

Group stage matches was played in three blocks. The first and third blocks took place in Dhaka with the middle block of 10 matches taking place in Chittagong. Two matches were played on each day of the group stage part of the tournament. The first four matches of the tournament were washed out after heavy rain and the two matches scheduled to take place on 6 November were postponed. The tournament was restarted on 8 November with the first six fixtures to be rescheduled at a later date. The matches from the opening day of fixtures was replayed with the points table reset.

In the Finale, Rangpur Riders defeated Dhaka Dynamites to win their first title. In the final match Chris Gayle was awarded the man of the match award and also won player of the series award. He was the leading run scorer in the tournament with 2 banger centuries (146* of 69 and 126 of 51 ) and a total tally of 485 runs. Shakib Al Hasan was the leading wicket taker with 22 wickets.

Originally, the season was scheduled to start on 1 October 2018 and end on 16 November 2018. However, in May 2018, it was reported that the tournament might be moved to January 2019, because of security concerns around the Bangladeshi general election, which took place in December 2018. In July 2018, it was confirmed that the tournament would start in January 2019. For this edition of the tournament, the Decision Review System (DRS) were used for the first time.

In the 2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League final, the Comilla Victorians defeated Dhaka Dynamites by 17 runs to win their second title. In the final match, Tamim Iqbal was awarded the man of the match award, after scoring 141 not out. Rilee Rossouw was the leading run scorer in the tournament with 558 runs. Shakib Al Hasan was the leading wicket taker with 22 wickets and also won the player of the tournament award.

Rajshahi Royals defeated Khulna Tigers by 21 runs in the final match. Royals skipper Andre Russell was elected as both Man of the match for the final and Player of the Tournament for his all-round performances and for leading his side to their maiden BPL title.^[11][12]

The 2022 season was initially scheduled to start in March 2021.^[13] However, the tournament was postponed and rescheduled to be held from 21 January to 18 February 2022.^[14] In December 2021, all six teams were announced, with Rangpur Rangers and the defending champion Rajshahi Royals being excluded, a franchise from Barisal was included and Comilla Victorians also returned after a year's break.^[15] Initially, Rupa Steel & Marn Group owned the Dhaka franchise, but a day before the players' draft their ownership was terminated due to non compliance of rules. However, the Minister Group took ownership of the franchise after the players' draft.^[16] Due to the unavailability of technical teams the DRS system could not be used in this season. Initially, BCB decided to allow spectators this year, however, due to the rise of Omicron variants, the board backed out from its decision and decided to play behind closed doors.^[17]

The two points table topper teams Fortune Barishal and Comilla Victorians reached the final. In the final, Comilla Victorians defended 151 runs to win their third title in a thrilling 1-run victory.^[18] Sunil Narine was the Player of the Final for his all-round performances. Shakib Al Hasan, captain of the runners-up team, Fortune Barishal, received the Player of the Tournament award for his all-round performance, having scored 284 runs in 11 innings and picked up 16 wickets.^[19]

BCB announced the list of franchise owners in September 2022, with five of the previous six franchises retaining ownership and the return of Rangpur Riders after two seasons. On 24 December 2022, BCB announced the fixtures for this season with two matches to be played per day in the group stage and having reserve days for all of the knockout matches.

^[20] In the final, Comilla Victorians defeated Sylhet Strikers by 7 wickets to win their second successive and overall fourth title.

In the opening match, Durdanto Dhaka defeated the then defending champions Comilla Victorians in the first match.^[21] But surprisingly, that was their only win and had to face defeats all the way.^[22] Many international players also played in this season, namely Imran Tahir, James Neesham, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller etc, making this season a remarkable one.

Fortune Barishal stopped Comilla Victorians winning back-to-back-to-back titles by defeating them in the final. Barishal won their first ever title in this tournament.^[23]

In the opening match, Fortune Barishal beat Durbar Rajshahi by 4 wickets at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka.