Zunaid Paiker: The one who has been collecting cricket memorabilia for over two decades
Paiker has some special match tickets in his collection that includes Shakib’s double hundred against New Zealand, Tamim’s back to back hundreds against Pakistan, Bangladesh’s first ODI win against Kenya and the Tigers’ first bilateral series win over Zimbabwe. He also has a collection of official cricket ties including Wills International Cup 1998, Inaugural Test 2000 and the 2003 CWC
How many cricket matches have you watched live from the stadium? 10? 50? 100? The number may vary.
I have watched a number of matches from the stadium myself and it is safe to say that I have no memento from any of those matches.
We go to the stadium, experience the match as it happens, throw the tickets away and keep that memory to ourselves. It is pretty common.
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But what if I told you there is someone named Zunaid Paiker who has preserved all the tickets of almost every match played in Bangladesh since 2000 - that too, with autographs of the players.
Sounds a bit freaky, but you read it right. And it does not stop here. There is a lot more to his collection that will only make you wonder even more.
So what else does Paiker have in his collection that makes it so special? It is probably better to ask what isn't there in his collection.
From official souvenirs of every ICC Cricket World Cup since 1999 to autographs of a number of the legends of the game, Paiker has collected it all. And some of his collections will blow anyone's mind away.
How it all started
Paiker was a ball boy in three matches in the ICC Knockout Trophy (Wills International Cup) which was held in Dhaka in 1998. That was the first time he got to see several international players from a touching distance - including his favourite player, Mohammad Azharuddin.
Paiker took some autographs from them and clicked a few photos.
Then came 2000, when Bangladesh played their first-ever test match against India in Dhaka. Paiker went to the stadium, kept one extra ticket to himself which he later used to get autographs from the squad members.
There used to be corporate tournaments held at the Abahani field in the early 2000s where he would go and collect autographs from the cricketers.
"Even though I collect cricket memorabilia, I actually started with an autograph from a Bangladeshi footballer," Paiker told The Business Standard.
Guess who that footballer was? It was Salahuddin Ahmed, one of the finest football legends in Bangladesh.
The first exhibition in 2011
2011 was an eventful year for Bangladesh cricket as they co-hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup that year. Paiker organized a solo exhibition of his collected tickets and some autographs in 2011 at the Russian Cultural Centre, Dhaka.
But he realised people were not much interested in just tickets and autographs; they wanted more.
"I saw people weren't finding just tickets and autographs interesting. So I started taking autographs on mini bats and books. I even collected coat pins and stamps. I have one of the earliest cricket stamps from the 1962 Cape Verde in my collection. Recently I collected gloves worn by the players. I even have playing cards, coins, caps and world cup souvenirs," Paiker said.
From Border, Ponting, Sachin, Bulbul and Shakib
As mentioned before, Paiker has autographs and memorabilia of almost all the big names of the game - Allan Border, Gary Sobers, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis to local legends Aminul Islam Bulbul, Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful. Paiker's collection boasts autographs from hundreds of world-famous cricketers.
Allan Border's name may come as a surprise. Paiker bought a photo frame signed by the great Border from an auction a few years back.
Paiker has photo frames signed by some of the bowling legends we grew up watching such as Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
Paiker kept their autographs together in a single frame believing that these two go best together. He also has photo frames or balls signed by the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Dale Steyn and many others.
Paiker collected the autographs of Gary Sobers, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim on specially designed mini bats and edited photos.
Interestingly, he framed a photo of Sachin, Kohli and MS Dhoni together and got it signed by the trio back in 2012. Many asked him why Kohli was in the photo alongside the two legends.
"They've hopefully got their answer now!" Paiker told the correspondent in response.
He also got the autobiographies of AB De Villers and Ben Stokes signed by them.
Bangladesh Cricket history is one of his places of interest. He has autographs from the players of the 1977 MCC versus Bangladesh match, champions of the ICC trophy 1997 to the winning players of the ICC U-19 World Cup 2020.
Aminul Islam Bulbul presented him with a cap he wore back in 1995. With this cap, he got a collection of caps with all three logos of Bangladesh Cricket. His collection has the vintage 1995 cap, which was worn in the first world cup in 1999 and the most recent one worn in 2019.
Paiker has a collection of gloves worn during matches which includes Shakib Al Hasan's CWC 1,900 against West Indies, Mushfiqur Rahim's century against Sri Lanka at Asia Cup Dubai and Bangladesh's 100th century by Mominul Haque against Zimbabwe.
He also got the CWC 19 ball signed by Shakib, which got him five wickets against Afghanistan.
Paiker has some special match tickets in his collection that includes Shakib's double hundred against New Zealand,
Tamim's back to back hundreds against Pakistan, Bangladesh's first ODI win against Kenya and the Tigers' first bilateral series win over Zimbabwe.
He also has a collection of official cricket ties including Wills International Cup 1998, Inaugural Test 2000 and the 2003 CWC.
The list goes on and on.
Personal favourite and the one Paiker did not get
Among all the incredible memorabilia Paiker has, the coin from the opening game of 2014 ICC WT20 remains his favourite.
"That was the coin used in the opening game between Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Bangladesh hosted that T20 WC alone, and it was a memorable event for all of us. I bought that coin from the ICC and it's my personal favourite," Paiker said.
Paiker shared some of his dearest autograph-taking memories from the players with The Business Standard.
Once, he went to Ricky Ponting, who was having breakfast at Hotel Sonargaon back in April 2011. He considered it "a bit risky" but successfully managed to get an autograph from the legend.
Detailing the incident, Paiker said, "Australians don't really like this kind of stuff. Besides, he was having breakfast. I thought it was a bit risky but I went to him anyway. I had a framed photo of him. He looked at me and seemingly happily signed the frame. He probably liked the photo."
Paiker asked Mohammad Ashraful to manage autographs from all the cricketers of the 2005 series-winning squad against Zimbabwe. Ashraful, to his utter surprise, invited him to the team hotel, made him a cup of coffee and gave him all the players' autographs.
The only time Paiker failed to get an autograph was in December 2004. He was waiting for Anil Kumble to come and give him an autograph. The spinning legend did come, but told Paiker to wait for a while.
Paiker waited for hours but Kumble never showed up.
Helping Nepal
Besides the coin from the opening game of 2014 ICC WT20, Paiker mistakenly bought the toss coin from the Nepal-Hong Kong match. But the purchase did not go in vain.
He later donated that coin to the Cricket Association of Nepal for an earthquake charity match between Nepal and rest of the world where Aminul Islam Bulbul and Abdur Razzak took part.
Time is money
Paiker has surely invested a lot of money and time on his huge collection. But to him, the time and effort he invested are worth more than the money he had to spend.
"Time is more valuable to me than money," Paiker said, adding, "I had to invest more time for the autographs. And the planning and effort I put behind it is more than a sum of money I can count."
More importantly, preserving all of them for 23 years is nothing but a huge achievement that money alone cannot buy.
Paiker's family and colleagues helped and supported him for which he is grateful to them.
Paiker also does not have any intention of selling or auctioning off any of his memorabilia anytime soon.
"These are all my personal collections. I don't intend to sell or auction any of them in the future as of yet. I want to keep all of these to myself as long as I can," he confirmed.
Future plans
Paiker is undoubtedly the pioneer of collecting cricket memorabilia in Bangladesh. A lot of young people are getting inspired by him and starting to collect jerseys and autographs. Paiker requested more people to stop taking selfies and start taking autographs from the players whenever they meet them.
To him, autographs are interesting and more personal with historical references for future generations.
Paiker has a dream to set up a cricket museum or cricket cafe with the support of cricket-loving corporate houses like in other countries of the world. And if Paiker succeeds in building one, it will definitely be a place worth visiting.
