Dhaka: Barisal Bulls were ruled out of the franchise-based 5th Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 cricket beginning at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on November 2 for financial constraints.

Barisal Bulls, which participated in the first two editions of BPL as Barisal Burners, were ousted from the eight-team ensuing league for not paying the tournament fees, curtailing the team number of the tournament to seven.

The participating teams are Chittagong Vikings, Comilla Victorians, Dhaka Dynamites, Khulna Titans, Rajshahi Kings, Rangpur Riders and Surma Sixers Sylhet.

After a meeting on Wednesday, Chairman of the BPL Governing Council Afzalur Rahman Sinha said, "We've decided that Barisal Bulls will not be participating in this year's league as they didn't meet the financial terms and conditions of the 5th version BPL."

The Barisal franchise co-owned by Axiom Technologies and BCB Director MA Awwal Chowdhury, played all the four BPL till 2016, reportedly was reluctant to run the team this year due to financial constraints.

It will be given the chance in next year BPL subject of the board approval if they will capable to run the team.

However, Sinha said the Barisal Bulls players, including their icon cricketer, are likely to be in the players' draft to be held in the next month.

As of the 2017-18 season, the league consists of seven franchises. Each team plays every other team twice in the round-robin stage of the competition with the teams with the best record advancing to a series of play-off matches.