Paul Stirling- Photo: Collected

DHAKA, Jan 29, 2025 (BSS)—Ireland’s veteran allrounder Paul Stirling believes the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) helps the country’s young cricketers to prepare them systematically for the national duty.

The 34-year old seasoned player observed this from his decade long experience of playing in the Bangladesh’s flagship event.

Stirling who began his BPL journey in 2012-2013 has already played in three teams, with the latest stint with Sylhet Strikers. He thought was not in good form in this season as his side had already made an exit from the playoffs race.

“I think this is a great initiative for Bangladesh to look into the youth system and try and help prepare the next cricketer for national duty,” Stirling said in an exclusive conservation with the BSS recently.” 

“So, hopefully the more kids playing cricket the better.”

Stirling has long been recognized as a formidable cricketing talent both in Ireland and beyond. Born in Belfast, he made his ODI debut at the age of just 17. He played for Ireland in the World Twenty20 in England in 2009. 
Before his 23rd birthday, he had already hit two ODI centuries against Pakistan.

His 134-ball 177 for Ireland against Canada in Toronto is still the highest ODI score made by an Irishman.

Stirling who is regular in English County Cricket, played T20 tournaments in almost all countries, which organized domestic T20 event regularly.

From his experience, Stirling found Bangladeshi fans most passionate for their country’s cricket. So he was not surprised by seeing huge crowd in the stadium in almost all BPL matches.

The BPL this year went for online cricketing system which earned appreciation from the fans because it made their task easier. Moreover the atmosphere of the stadium was more spectators’ friendly unlike the past.  So as far as drawing the attention of the fans is concerned, the BPL is a success.

The standard of the pitch is another factor that made this BPL more attractive than the past. Almost all matches saw a considerable amount of runs and it was also chased with ease sometimes.

In the past two seasons, the BPL was hugely criticized for poor pitches. The local and foreign also joined in criticism of the pitch.

 This time, there was no complain but there was huge appreciation from local and overseas players. Stirling is no exception.

“Yeah, I think there’s always good crowds in Bangladesh. I think there are a couple of good teams on the top of the league. The rest of them are chasing it,” he said. “The standard of pitch was good and we saw good scores which was also chased. That’s good for the BPL.”

Striling also heaped praise on his franchise Sylhet Strikers, saying that despite the mediocre results, the team got behind them and backed them which is really appreciating.

“Sylhet probably provides one of the best atmosphere so far, they really got behind us as a team and they backed their players as much as possible. So yeah that was a good experience (playing in this team).”

Paying the price of the poor performance, Sylhet languished at the bottom of the table at this moment and there is also chance that they can end up at bottom table. They have just one match left against Chittagong Kings, which will be held on Thursday.

Stirling also had an ordinary outing this time, scoring only 24 runs in five matches. He however side, the players including him, tried their best but somehow it didn’t work for them.

“Exactly I think that’s the case (ups and downs) and every player gave their best and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t so. We actually needed to perform a little bit better.”