Suspended former Australian skipper Steve Smith’s participation in the upcoming sixth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is in doubt after franchisees questioned his inclusion in the league, and now the matter referred to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Smith was signed by the Comilla Victorians as a replacement for the injured Sri Lankan Asela Gunaratne, but his signing was against the BPL rules, as he was acquired outside of the draft process.

According to the BPL rule, replacement players are supposed to be chosen from among the players who were in the draft in the first and other franchisees believes that Smith isn’t viable to be picked by any team for the T20 event, as Australian batting superstar was not part of the BPL draft.

Jalal Yunus, the BPL technical committee chairman, told Cricbuzz on Tuesday (December 11), “We have referred the issue to the Bangladesh Cricket Board. At first Rangpur Riders raised the issue but later other franchises joined them and informed about their reservation. So it turned out difficult for us to solve so we referred the issue to the board to solve it. We will take the decision in the next board meeting or we will inform it to them [Victorians] soon.”

He signed off by saying, “To be honest they are not entitled to take any player outside of the draft if they are replacing someone. They have to take it from the draft (in case a player is being replaced) but we obliged to their request of recruiting Steven Smith taking larger picture into consideration. But now it seems that cannot be implemented after the objection of other franchises unless BCB comes up with any other solution.”

(With Cricbuzz Inputs)