Dhaka Premier League (DPL), the main source of income for the majority of the country's cricketers, finally gets underway today at three different venues.

Defending champions Gazi Tank Cricketers will take on promotees Old DOHS at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur in one of the opening day's fixtures while Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club meet Partex Sporting Club at Fatullah and Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club face off with Kalabagan Krira Chakra at BKSP.

Traditional rivals Abahani and Mohammedan will face off in the second round tomorrow at Mirpur.

The league, the country's lone 50-over competition which is also a List A competition, was initially scheduled to start on October 10 but shifted to November 2 because of a BCB XI side's tour to Kolkata as BCB sent a strong team on former India captain Sourav Ganguly's request to cele-

brate 150 years of Eden Gardens. The reason behind the last postponement was however unknown.

"Now our main aim is to complete the league as early as possible. We are also planning to arrange six matches in a day so that we can complete it before the start of the national team's camp for the upcoming World Cup," said Amin Khan, coordinator of the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM).

The 12 participating teams will first compete in single league format from where the top six teams will qualify for the Super League. The bottom three sides will have to play the relegation league and two of them will be relegated to the First Division.

The teams will be allowed to field one foreign player and Amin informed that so far nine clubs completed one foreign player each while Abahani and Mohammedan were yet to sign any. Most of the foreign players are coming from Sri Lanka but no club has signed any big name player yet.