Interim government's Initiative to make Bangladesh a brand through cricket

The Interim Government, led by Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, has taken an initiative to make Bangladesh a brand through cricket, recognizing the game's huge popularity amongst the young people in and outside of the country.

Making Bangladesh a brand is a popular demand after the July uprising which saw so many people sacrificing their lives to end an autocratic ruling, led by Awami League fully for a corruption-free, discrimination-free country.

Professor Muhammad Yunus has already given a roadmap to how Bangladesh can be established as a brand through cricket. And for this he advised to run the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in organized way.

In fact, the BCB and the Ministry of Youth and Sports want to make the BPL popular in the country and abroad by using the Olympic experience of Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus.

The BCB had already held a meeting with the Chief Adviser's Office, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the representatives of the broadcasting owners.

"How to make the new BPL more popular and engaging was discussed in the meeting," BPL member secretary Nazmul Abedin Fahim said.
 
As the Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus was involved in the planning of the last Paris Olympics, Fahim said his experience will shed light on this year's BPL.

The Chief Advisor has already been invited to BPL. A star footballer or a Hollywood actor or actress may be brought to make BPL a global platform.

Bangladesh remain as usual a vulnerable team in Test and T20 format. Even the ODI cricket, which is called as Bangladesh's strongest zone, also took a huge nosedive. Bangladesh are now ranked at 9th position in ODI cricket in ICC rankings as it was in 2007.

"Let's not be diverted," Faruque said in line with the vision of Professor Yunus led government, which was the reward of a mass movement against an autocratic ruler, led by the students.

In another major development in 100-day of the interim government, Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud initiated a programme to build a sports institute in Bangladesh, which is the first of its kind in this country.

With the slogan of 'Center of Excellence', the activities to build the Sports Institute are going on.
 
The main goal of building the sports institute is to achieve national laurel through increasing the physical and mental capabilities of athletes, developing sports techniques and leadership qualities.

"Our goal is to produce skilled athletes of international standards and achieving higher results at the international level."

Another decision to eliminate discrimination from the sports fraternity, which was the pivotal goal of the interim government, was to reinstate former cricketer and coach Arifa Jahan Bithi as the manager of the Women's Cricket team in the Rangpur Division.

Bithi was dismissed for helping the student protestors with biscuits and snacks and stood by Abu Sayed's family during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

In the meantime, Bangladesh won a historic series in Pakistan when they swept two-match Test series. Subsequently they lost Test series against India, South Africa and an ODI series to Afghanistan.