AB de Villiers 'verbally agreed' to participate in BPL
The next session of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) seems to be a star-stubbed tournament. The defending champion of BPL, Rangpur Riders, has roped in AB de Villiers to play for them, a source closed to Rangpur Riders, has confirmed the news saying the batsman is 'verbally agreed' to play for them. The next BPL will take the field from 5 January 2019.
The source said anonymously: "We contacted the superstar batsman if he available to play the BPL, he said yes. We need a few more days to settle the contractual papers. But, he verbally agreed to join us."
The source also said that the batsman initially agreed to play nine group matches for Rangpur Riders and he will play more three if Riders qualify for knock-outs.
Rangpur Riders are getting prepared to defend the title. They have retained four players from their previous squad, and they are captain Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Mithun, Chris Gayle and Nazmul Islam Apu.
The South African veteran batsman called off his international career on 23 May this year. But, the right-handed batsman said that he continues to play in the Indian Premier League and domestic cricket in his country. Now, the most aggressive batsman of his age agreed to play another T20 league- BPL- and, which is set to be his first appearance in the BPL.
AB de Villiers is a regular player for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), an IPL side. He played 141 matches in the IPL and scored 3953 runs with three centuries and 28 half-centuries to his name.
The right-handed batsman played 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20Is for South Africa, and scored 8765, 9577 and 1672 respectively. The management of Rangpur Riders is hopeful to defend the title with the help of the vast experience of Villiers.
Before AB de Villiers, Rangpur inked an agreement with Alex Hales. The Englishman signed papers to play for Riders next two seasons of BPL. Alex kept himself out of the squad during England's Bangladesh tour back in 2016 for a terrorist attack in Dhaka.