Australia’s Steve Smith has been barred from participating in the upcoming edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) after objections were raised by the rest of the franchises over a by-law violation.
The banned Aussie star was signed by the Comilla Victorians recently as replacement for Sri Lanka batsman Asela Gunaratne. However, the rest of the franchises then expressed their reservations over the move due to the Australian not having been a part of the initial player draft.
Under BPL laws, franchises can only sign a replacement from the pool of players in the original draft. After the BPL failed to arrive at a resolution, the matter had been sent to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for a final verdict.
“Yes he is not available for us. We have received a mail in this regard last night,” Comilla Victorians CEO Col(retd) AKM Zaki told Cricbuzz.
The franchise plans to appeal to the BCB to reconsider their decision but it now looks unlikely that Smith will feature in the upcoming BPL edition which gets underway on January 5.
Smith was set to join Warner for the 2019 edition of the BPL.
While Smith is set to miss out, his fellow banned Australian batsman David Warner has been named as the skipper for BPL franchise Sylhet Sixers.
Both the batsmen continue to serve the 12-month ban from international and domestic cricket handed to them by Cricket Australia for their roles in the ball-tampering fiasco.
Smith, meanwhile, is set to face the Australian media for the first time since his emotional press conference post his return from the infamous tour of South Africa. The former Australia skipper will address the media in Sydney on Friday before training with Big Bash League (BBL) outfit Sydney Sixers.