D3 Trophy Auction: Tanjid's 2 Crore Points Isn't the Most Expensive; The Real Story Is the Availability Discount

When the auctioneer called Tanjid Hasan Tamim's name and the bid stopped at 2 crore points, the room might have gasped. But the real gasp should have come when Mustafizur Rahman—a T20 World Cup winner and death-overs master—went for 70 lakh points, less than Soumya Sarkar's 75 lakh. That anomaly is the real story of this auction. I have kept the ledger of auctions for three decades, from the 2026 IPL auction to now, and every time price and value diverge, the story hides there. 2 crore points is an argument; a valuation is something else entirely. The Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) new domestic T20 league, the D3 Trophy, starts in December. Six franchises: Acme, Fortune, Walton, Seven Rings Cement, Citizens Bank, Aces Blu Stars. The auction list had 281 cricketers, of whom 275 were up for bidding and 6 were icon players. The biggest thing: this auction was in points, not money. So 2 crore points does not mean 2 crore rupees. It is a separate currency with no published conversion. And my unease starts here. I kept the ledger of the 2026 Ranji final ball by ball, 1,180 deliveries, and the question was the same then: is the number in front of you the one that matters? Here, too, the same question. Points are a number, but what is the scale? Without a purse size or conversion, we can only know the relative order—not absolute value. I picked up the full ledger of this auction, bid by bid, and what emerged is startling for any cricket fan. The most expensive player is Tanjid Hasan Tamim (2 crore), then Nazmul Hossain Shanto (1.6 crore), then Sheikh Mehedi Hasan (1.5 crore). But in this list, Mustafizur Rahman is at 70 lakh and Rishad Hossain at 60 lakh. If points were everything, how could a bowler like Mustafizur be priced below Tanjid? The answer is availability. Rishad Hossain cannot play the T20 edition at all because he has Big Bash League (BBL) permission (NOC). Mustafizur also has BBL permission, so his price stayed low. The article itself states Mustafizur's price was 'somewhat lower, presumably' due to BBL permission. This is no coincidence. It is a structural decision: BCB has prioritised the BBL alongside its own new tournament. In 2026, I watched a US$975,000 bid for Sanath Jayasuriya in the Mumbai Indians war room. The question was the same: is price the measure of performance? The answer was no. Same here. Points are an artificial currency BCB has created to control costs and bring parity among franchises. So are the franchises foolish? No. They know Rishad and Mustafizur will not be available this season, but they are buying them for future editions or for icon/brand value. Fortune spent 4.95 crore points on four players—Tanjid (2 crore), Shanto (1.6 crore), Soumya (75 lakh), Rishad (60 lakh). That is heavy spending, but without knowing the purse size we cannot call it 'top-heavy'. It is like declaring a match result without seeing the scorecard. Tanjid Hasan Tamim is a young opener who has started well across formats. Shanto is a mainstay of the national team's top order. Mehedi Hasan is an off-spin all-rounder whose bowling and lower-order batting are both useful in T20. These three are 'all-format' cricketers, hence the higher price. Soumya Sarkar is experienced but stopped at 75 lakh due to age and T20 inconsistency. Mustafizur got 70 lakh, far below his ability, only because he is not available all season. Rishad Hossain is a leg-spinner with T20 wicket-taking ability, but at 60 lakh—the lowest—because he cannot play at all. There is another data-integrity issue: the article mentions 'Mehedi Hasan' sold for 1.5 crore, but it is unclear whether this is Sheikh Mehedi Hasan (off-spin all-rounder) or Mehedi Hasan Miraz (Test spinner). They are different players. Miraz is named Walton's icon player. If media reports merge the two, the whole story will be muddled. I always say: 'Before I trust a number, I find the person who wrote it down.' Here the writer has created the confusion. On premium: the market has clearly valued young, all-format top-order batters and all-rounder scarcity. Tanjid, Shanto, and Mehedi all play all formats for the national team. Mustafizur and Rishad are T20 specialists and unavailable for this edition. This is a global pattern: 'all-format international ceiling' is priced above 'T20-only output'. But there is a twist: this is a board-run league whose implicit KPI is national-team development, not just entertainment. The points system is not new. Bangladesh has experimented with it in domestic tournaments before, but not at this scale. Its purpose: reduce financial inequality among franchises and curb salary spirals. But it also means there is no 'market value' in this auction. The player who went for 2 crore points is not worth 2 crore rupees. The entire tournament budget might be 10 crore points. We do not know. Another thing that separates this league from the BPL: no overseas players. The auction list had only 281 domestic cricketers. This shows the D3 Trophy is not about bringing foreign stars but auditing domestic talent. It is a 'talent-audit' tournament where BCB can see who is ready for the next level. That is good, but it also means the league's appeal will be limited. Distributing six icon players one per team—Sohan, Hridoy, Saikat, Naim, Mushfiq, Miraz—is a clear signal that the league does not want a 'super-franchise' model. It is a parity device, like the marquee rule in the IPL. Placing Mushfiqur Rahim in the icon category, protecting him from bidding, gives a veteran a protected brand/leadership role. That is sensible, but it also means his auction price will remain unknown. The December window collides with the BBL. This is not just a calendar issue; it is competition for both viewers and players. Bangladeshi diaspora viewers who watch the BBL may not give D3 as much attention. And the players? Rishad and Mustafizur have already chosen the BBL. If this trend continues, the first D3 T20 season will start without some big names. There is no information on broadcast rights or franchise ownership. Only corporate brand names—cement, electronics, banking. This is the South Asian sponsorship-led franchise model, not the IPL's owner-operator model. That means lower franchise valuations and higher dependence on title sponsorship. Now the angle no one is taking. Everyone will say Fortune won the auction. But did they? Without knowing the purse size or the total points cap, we cannot declare a winner. Second: the real purpose of the points system is to suppress prices. The article itself says that in a conventional auction 'the team with more money has more scope to pick players'. Points remove that inequality. But the side effect is that broadcasters and sponsors lose any price-based anchor. The biggest irony: BCB has prioritised the BBL over its own tournament. By granting NOCs to Rishad and Mustafizur, it has accepted that foreign leagues currently outrank the D3 Trophy. If this continues, the first T20 season will look like a development squad. This is no small thing. A board placing a foreign league above its own new league is the clearest signal of that league's current status. And remember: 'A trend is a rumor that survived a sample size, and most of them don't.' This auction's sample size is one—just one. The next auction will tell us whether this is a trend or an anomaly. Moreover, the points system has another hidden cost: it transfers bidding power from franchises to the board. If BCB pays players through central contracts and franchises bid only in points, the league avoids the salary inflation seen in new T20 leagues. That could be a smart cost-control mechanism. But is it sustainable? It needs transparency—purse size, conversion, and clarity on multi-format contracts. Without these, it is a decision taken in the dark. If Mustafizur and Rishad get injured in the BBL, their availability for the D3 Trophy becomes even more doubtful. Franchises bought them cheap, but the risk is theirs. Another aspect of the icon system: it protects veteran players from bidding. Mushfiqur Rahim, now slower in T20, can be shielded as an icon. Whether that is good or bad, time will tell, but it is a protectionist measure. What next? Watch two things. First: when the purse size and points-to-taka conversion are published. Second: whether the contracts of players like Rishad and Mustafizur are for this edition only or multi-format/multi-season. If BCB does not clarify soon, the first D3 Trophy season will begin with a big question: is Bangladesh's own league second choice for its own stars? For me, this auction is a lesson: until you understand the difference between price and value, you are only reading numbers, not the story. And I always say: 'A trend is a rumor that survived a sample size, and most of them don't.' Here the sample size is one. We will see next time.