‘If the board doesn’t start sharing revenue, it will be difficult to continue’

Aveir Alam was a 13-year old when Comilla Victorians joined the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Coming from a cricket-loving family, he kind of grew up with cricket, with his grandfather Mustafa Kamal being the President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) from 2009 to 2012, and his aunt Nafisa Kamal being the owner of Comilla Victorians. 

Aveir remembers being the kid in the team hotel and being hugged by former national team captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza while playing on his PlaysStation, and being star-struck by the likes of Sunil Narine and Andre Russel in his room.

Aveir has grown with the franchise with time. He became the Vice Chairperson of the franchise at 22 and has a lot of responsibilities on his young shoulders.

"It was very unique. I kind of grew up with this franchise. At first, everyone naturally used to treat me as a kid. It was never that they didn't respect me, but they treated me as a child. But to grow up and see my opinion have value to the people who have been with cricket all their life is humbling," Aveir told The Business Standard (TBS).

While BPL franchises have changed numerous times over the years, the only constant that remained is Comilla Victorians. One can get confused trying to remember the names of the teams playing in a single campaign, but Comilla has been there since 2015 and have single-handedly dominated the tournament like no one else. 

And it's not only the franchise, there are a number of players - Litton Das, Sunil Narine, Andre Russel - who have been playing for the same Comilla side for almost 10 years now. They even have the same set of coaches, managers and support staff.

Aveir believes it's important to retain players as this shows the culture that Comilla has in their team. According to him, the franchise doesn't operate with their heads only, they operate with their hearts as well. 

"This team is in our heart, and I believe it's the same for our players as well," Aveir said.

"We do retain a few players, but when we go to players' draft, you'll notice we try to pick players who played for us before. There will probably be bigger players and stars to pick from, but we choose to go for players who were here before, because they understand the atmosphere and the effort from us. They know the love we have for them," he added.
Comilla is home to some notable foreign players like Narine, Russel and Moeen Ali. Narine and Russel have been here since the beginning, and they have joined the squad this season as well. Moeen Ali has been playing for the Victorians for three years now. 

"They speak very highly of us. They talk about our franchise in a way that's home to them. And it's really humbling," said Aveir.

Aveir also revealed a foreign player rejected the chance to play in the ILT20, even after getting a phone call from Shah Rukh Khan, just to play for the Victorians because 'this team is like a family' to him.

This raised the questions: Why can't other franchises continue for a long time, like Comilla has?'

Most earlier franchises faced a number of issues which prompted them to leave. And like any of them, Comilla has faced issues as well - revenue sharing, players' unavailability, long tournaments - to the point that they are also even thinking of withdrawing their franchise from BPL.

"It's difficult, really. It's not like they can't (continue for a long time). I think the passion our family has for cricket - we try to stretch it to the limits - is why we are still here. There are many things that dissuaded us," Aveir stated.

"If the cricket board doesn't start sharing revenue, franchises like us - who are here for 10 years - will find it difficult to continue," he said.

Aveir said the ball is in the board's court to decide how they want to structure the whole revenue sharing with the franchises. 

This year's scheduling has caused a lot of troubles for the franchises. Four international franchise tournaments are taking place almost at the same time, so players' availability has become a serious issue. 

"The window is too long for a T20 league. A T20 league shouldn't run for more than six weeks. Last year it was long too," Avier added.

Victorians plan to go carbon neutral

Comilla Victorians are planning to start a new initiative in order to save the environment. 

"If we remain a franchise by 2030, all of our operations will become carbon neutral. We are the first cricket franchise to declare this," Aveir said exclusively to TBS.

"Carbon emissions are increasing, along with pollution and global warming, every day, so we have to take care of the environment. This is extremely important," he added.
"Right now we are doing our carbon accountancy with a farm called Future Carbon. They will let us know the carbon footprint for this year, and we will offset a certain proportion; and it will increase gradually every year until 2030. Every gram of carbon emitted by Comilla Victorians and all of its corporations will be offset," he concluded.