Sylhet Strikers

Sylhet Strikers

সিলেট স্ট্রাইকার্স
League	Bangladesh Premier League
Personnel
Captain	Mashrafe Mortaza
Coach	Rajin Saleh
Owner	Future Sports Bangladesh
Team information
City	Sylhet, Bangladesh
Founded	2012; 12 years ago (2012) (as Sylhet Royals) 2015 (as Sylhet Super Stars) 2017 (as Sylhet Sixers) 2019 (as Sylhet Thunder) 2021 (as Sylhet Sunrisers) 2023 (as Sylhet Strikers)
Home ground	Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet
History
Bangladesh Premier League wins	0 (Runner Up 2023)
T20 kit

Sylhet Strikers (Bengali: সিলেট স্ট্রাইকার্স) is a professional cricket franchise team based in Sylhet, Bangladesh. The team competes in the Bangladesh Premier League. The franchise made its debut at the 2012 Bangladesh Premier League.

The team was owned by Sylhet Sports Limited in the care of Bangladesh's former Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith. His son, Shahed Muhith is the Chairman of the team. The Sixers announced Waqar Younis as head coach and International Cricketer, David Warner as captain for the sixth edition of Bangladesh Premier League. Former Bangladesh National Cricket Team all-rounder Alok Kapali took over as captain after Warner's departure, due to injury.

On 16 November 2019, 24Bazar.biz was named as the sponsor of the team and it was renamed to Sylhet Thunder.^[1] The team changed ownership ahead of the 2021–22 Bangladesh Premier League.^[2] The team was rebranded as Sylhet Sunrisers after changing owners ahead of 2021–22 Bangladesh Premier League.^[3]

In September 2022, Future Sports Bangladesh acquired the ownership and renamed the team to Sylhet Strikers.^[4]

Sylhet Sixers is a new Franchisee, created in 2017, competing in Bangladesh Premier League, chaired by architect, social activist and IT Specialist Shahed Muhit. The team's management has extensive experience in sports team management. The management intends to use the team to bridge the gap between cricket stars and passionate fans and engage the youth to divert their focus to wholesome sporting activities. Sylhet Sixers is the brainchild of a Bangladesh MP, Abul Maal Abdul Muhit. A management team composed of former cricketers, coaches, lawyers, and business entrepreneurs formed to start the Sylhet Sixers. Mr. Maashed R. Abdullah and Mr. Yasir Obaid both textile entrepreneurs had joined the Sixers as managing director and CEO respectively.

The Sylhet Franchise returned to BPL under the Sylhet Sixers banner. The team's icon player was Sabbir Rahman and was captained by all-rounder Nasir Hossain. They lured wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan and orthodox spinner and Taijul Islam as pre-draft signings. Their foreign player signings included Krishmar Santokie, Babar Azam, Liam Plunkett, Andre Fletcher, Upul Tharanga, Ross Whitely and more.

At the draft, pacer Abul Hasan was their first pick. Their first foreign pick was Lankan all-rounder Chaturanga de Silva. Their surprise picks were little-known, inexperienced Pakistani pacer Ghulam Mudassar, averaging more than 40 with the ball and picking up a solitary wicket in the 2 matches.

The team started their campaign with 4 wins in a row on their home turf. Andre Fletcher and Upul Tharanga turned out to be destructive at the top. Skipper Nasir Hossain bowled well so did Liam Plunkett. The Sixers suffered a series of injuries as the tournament went on. In the end, the Sixers finished fifth on the points table.

The Sixers decided to retain Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain and Pakistani all-rounder Sohail Tanvir. They signed Bangladesh National Cricket Team opener and wicket-keeper Liton Das as their icon player. Outside the draft, they signed Australian batsman David Warner. They also signed English opening batsman Jason Roy, Nepali leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, South African Imran Tahir, Wayne Parnell and Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz.

At the draft, Sylhet signed the likes of Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain, Afif Hossain and Alok Kapali from the domestic category. Their international signings from the draft included Nicholas Pooran, Mohammad Irfan, Andre Fletcher, and Gulbadin Naib to name a few.

During the player's direct signing period, a Conflict of Interests arose between BCB and all other franchises. Subsequently, in September 2019, BCB made some changes in rules and regulations for this season and eliminated all franchises, BCB took over the charge of the current BPL and decided to run this current tournament by the board itself and named the tournament as Bangabandhu BPL T20 2019 in order to pay homage to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on his birth centenary.^[5] The team is owned and managed by BCB itself.^[6]

The Sylhet Strikers opened its campaign against Chattogram Challengers.The game was played on 19 January which ended in, Sylhet Strikers getting defeated by Chattogram Challengers by 7 wickets to lose their opening match. Sylhet has played 10 matches in BPL 24, won 3 and lost 7 matches.^[7]

Overseas Players include Kennar Lewis, Samit Patel, Harry Tector, Benny Howell and Ryan Burl.

Name	Nationality	Batting Style	Bowling Style	Notes
Batters
George Munsey	Scotland	Left-handed	Right Arm Medium-fast	Overseas
Wicket-keepers|
Rony Talukder	Bangladesh	Right-handed
Zakir Hasan	Bangladesh	Left-handed
Jaker Ali	Bangladesh	Right-handed
All-rounders
Paul Stirling	Ireland	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	Overseas
Rahkeem Cornwall	West Indies	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	Overseas
Nahidul Islam	Bangladesh	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break
Samiullah Shinwari	Afghanistan	Right-handed	Right-arm leg-break	Overseas
Ariful Haque	Bangladesh	Right-handed	Right-arm Fast-medium
Pace bowlers
Tanzim Hasan Sakib	Bangladesh	Right-handed	Right-arm Fast-medium
Reece Topley	England	Right-handed	Left-arm Fast-medium	Overseas
Al-Amin Hossain	Bangladesh	Right-handed	Right-arm Fast-medium
Mashrafe Mortaza (C)	Bangladesh	Right-handed	Right-arm Fast-medium	Captain
Ruyel Miah	Bangladesh	Left-handed	Left-arm Fast-medium
Spin bowlers
Arafat Sunny	Bangladesh	Left-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox
Nihaduzzaman	Bangladesh	Right-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox