The Domestic-3 Trophy, also known as the D3 Trophy, will take its next step towards revamping Bangladesh’s domestic cricket with its first player auction on October 26. The six franchises will enter an unusual points-based auction, with each team given a purse of 100 million points to build a 22-player squad from six player categories.
Unlike conventional franchise leagues, where teams bid with money, the inaugural D3 auction will use a designated points system. Every franchise will start with the same 100 million points and must use that purse to complete a squad of exactly 22 players.
The auction rules, obtained by TIMES, outline the player categories, base prices, bidding increments and squad-composition requirements.
The eligible players will be divided into six categories, from A to F, with each category carrying a different base price. Category A will start at four million points, followed by three million for Category B, two million for Category C, one million for Category D, 500,000 for Category E and 300,000 for Category F.
The base price will be the minimum amount at which bidding can begin.
The bidding increments will also vary according to the player’s category and the value of the current bid. For Category A, bids will rise by 500,000 points up to nine million, after which the increment will be 100,000 points.
For Category B, the increment will be 300,000 points up to six million, before dropping to 100,000 points. Category C will have 200,000-point increments up to two million, followed by 100,000-point increments.
Category D bids will increase by 100,000 points up to 1.5 million and then by 50,000 points. For Categories E and F, the increment will be 50,000 points up to one million, followed by 25,000-point increments.
The applicable bidding increment will be determined by the auctioneer or the auction system according to the player’s category and the value of the current bid.
Each franchise must complete a 22-player squad through the Main Auction and cannot sign more than 22 players. No team will be permitted to close the auction without filling all 22 slots, unless the Tournament Authority grants an exception under the competition regulations.
There is also a specific requirement for wicketkeepers. Every franchise must have at least one designated wicketkeeper in its final squad, with the Tournament Authority responsible for determining the official wicketkeeper designation for squad-composition purposes.
Unsold players could also get another opportunity. The Tournament Authority may bring an unsold player back into the auction at a later stage and can retain or revise the player’s base price when the player is re-presented.
The regulations also give franchises some flexibility after the inaugural season. Each team may release up to five players at the end of Year 1.
Any vacancies created by those releases can be filled through a Mini-Auction, subject to the squad-composition requirements and the franchise’s remaining points. The detailed release procedure and deadline will be set by the Tournament Authority.
The D3 Trophy will bring six corporate-backed franchises into a single domestic structure, replacing the separate competitions previously used for the three formats. The BCB has positioned the new model as a long-term restructuring of domestic cricket, with the player auction serving as a key step before the tournament begins on December 15.
The six franchises are Walton, Fortune, ACME, Seven Rings, ACE Bluestar and Citizens Bank, with Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Towhid Hridoy, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nurul Hasan Sohan and Naim Sheikh assigned as their respective icon players.
The competition will feature 42 matches across three formats: 19 T20s, 16 one-day games and seven four-day matches. The T20 phase will be played in December, followed by the four-day competition in January and the one-day phase in May 2027.
