Cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh and the only sport that represents Bangladesh throughout the globe. After the independence of Bangladesh, the country started to play cricket along with football. At the beginning of the country, football was the most popular sport in Bangladesh. However, The scenario has altered over the past years. Especially, when the Bangladesh cricket team known as the “Tigers” won their first-ever ICC champion trophy in Malaysia.
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With the heroic victory, the team got the ticket to play in the World Cup main stage and 1999, for the first time Bangladesh participated in the international cricket World Cup. Consequently, Bangladesh defeated Pakistan in the main stage of the 1999 World Cup. People all over the country have shown their support for them and started following the men’s cricket team of Bangladesh.
The Rise of Bangladesh Cricket
After the independence of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Cricket Board began its job in 1972. However, at the time, there wasn’t enough founding for them to create a cricket team. In 1977, Bangladesh officially joined as a member of the ICC and participated in the ICC trophy in 1979 which was the debut of the newborn country Bangladesh.
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Since Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan and the British Raj in the past, the country has a huge amount of cricket fans and followers. However, football always dominated in the Bengali regions of the Indian subcontinent. The scenario of cricket popularity in Bangladesh changed in 1997 when the Bangladesh cricket team won the first-ever ICC trophy. In Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Bangladesh faced Kenya in the final and the winner of the ICC trophy will qualify for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup in England.
Bangladesh defeated Kenya with a very low margin in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and secured the ticket to the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England. On 31 May 1999, Bangladesh faced Pakistan for the first time in the international cricketing stage in Northampton England. Pakistan won and decided to ball fast and invited Bangladesh’s men’s cricket team to bat first. The opening partnership of Bangladesh wasn’t very long but the middle order was performed excellently, especially by Akram Khan, Shahriar Hussain, and Aminul Khan. At the end of the day, Bangladesh defeated Pakistan by a very big margin and the people of Bangladesh started celebrating the success of their cricket team.
After having a good time in the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England the rising popularity of cricket in Bangladesh attracted the International Cricket Council (ICC) and provided test status to Bangladesh cricket. On November 10, 2000, India and Bangladesh played a test match in the Bangabandu National Stadium. That was the first test match for Bangladesh and in that match, the Tigers secured 400 runs in the first innings. In response, the Indian cricket team scored more than 480 runs and the game ended as a draw.
Despite Bangladesh was not the winner of the match it was a draw with the superpower of cricket at that time. As a result, the popularity of Bangladeshi cricket has gained widespread fame. The popularity assisted BCB in earning more money and the BCB has built its stadium in Mirpur. Then the rise of Bangladeshi cricket has going on and now the team is playing the cricket World Cup regularly and several finals in the big tournaments.
The current economic condition of the Bangladesh Cricket Board
At the present day, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is the 4th richest Cricket board in the entire world. Of course, BCCI holds the first status because of their huge popularity. The second and third positions are held by England Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA). The current market value of Bangladesh cricket is around ৳950 crores which is equivalent to almost 100 million US dollars.
The main income sources of the Bangladesh cricket team are advertisements, broadcasting rights, and match tickets. According to the report of the first Sports channel of Bangladesh T-Sports, they had pressed the broadcasting rights of Bangladesh cricket team and they had to pay around ৳1600 crores for the next five years. The amount is equivalent to $180 million. The Bangladesh Cricket Board has also earned a huge amount of money through advertisements. The most popular celebrities in Bangladesh are cricket players such as Shakib Al Hassan, Tamim Iqbal Khan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed etc.
Since cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh, the majority of matches of the Bangladesh cricket team have sellouts. The Bangladesh Cricket Board sells single tickets from $5 to $100 and family tickets from $50 to $500. The current capacity of the home of Bangladesh cricket team Mirpur stadium is around 25000. The BCB has created a new stadium in the modern city purbachal which could pull more than 70000 spectators.
The success story of the Bangladesh cricket team in the big stages of the cricket world.
Since the beginning of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, the cricket board has tried to win major ICC events. Unfortunately, the highest achievement of the Bangladesh cricket team was playing in the quarter-final of the Cricket World Cup 2015 which was held in Australia and New Zealand. Bangladesh defeated the current Cricket champion England by a very close margin at Adelaide Oval. However, India defeated Bangladesh in the quarter-final by a very close margin at Sydney Cricket Ground.
In addition, the Bangladesh cricket team has also participated in almost every event of the Asia Cup and performing constantly. The Bangladesh cricket team secured a final in the Asia Cup in 2012 and they lost the final against Pakistan with a very close margin. Then in 2015, 2017, and 2022 the team secured the final but lost the final matches.
In 2017, the Bangladesh cricket team defeated New Zealand in Sophia Gardens in Cardiff Wales and gained the ticket to the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final. Unfortunately, again, they lost the match to the Indian Cricket team. In the tournament, Pakistan defeated India in the final match by a very big margin.
In the present day, the Bangladesh cricket team has improved a lot and performing constantly. For example, the team has defeated South Africa in their own country and also defeated Blackcaps in New Zealand. In the ICC test champions trophy, the team also defeated Pakistan and whitewashed them. However, sometimes the team performs very badly and the countrymen of Bangladesh become very unsatisfied with their team.
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