In
our country, at this moment, the name of the most popular sport is ‘cricket’.
For good performance of our cricketers at international tournaments, this game has
become popular in rural areas of Bangladesh. So, a lot of cricket equipments
are being sold everywhere in the country. There was a time when all types of
cricket equipments were imported from abroad. But time has changed. Advanced equipments
are still brought from abroad, but many of these equipments are now made in our
country. Cricket bat is one of them. Narendrapur area of Jashore is one of the
suppliers of cricket bat all over the country. In this village, by using local
technology, so many cricket bats are being manufactured and sold. Hence, it has
become famous as the “Village of cricket bat”. Many people have changed their
fortunes by making cricket bats.
Narendrapur
village is about 19 kilometers away from Jashore city. Mistripara (an area
having a number of artisans) of that village is specially known as the ‘village
of cricket bat’. This fairy tale story was started by the villager Sanjit Majumder.
On
behalf of The Bangla Tribune, I went to Narendrapur to find Sanjit Majumder,
the artisan of cricket bat. Upon searching for a while, neighbors showed me his
house. The story of making cricket bat is heard from his mouth.
Sanjit
said, “In 1984, I visited my elder sister’s house in West Bengal, India. Seeing
many wooden artworks there, I got the idea of doing something new. Afterwards,
coming back home, I along with my nephew, tried to make something new. Cricket
attracted me a lot. Owing to this, I talked with brother Babu, the owner of a
sports shop ‘Leading Sports’ in Jashore and resident of Ghop area. He advised
us to start making cricket bat. In 1986, under the inspiration of brother Babu,
I along with my nephew made the cricket bat for the first time. Initially, we
used to sell those bats in Jashore. Brother Babu inspired us to make even more
bats. That was the beginning and we did not have to look back since then.
Afterwards, this bat spread to the surrounding areas of Jashore.”
Sanjit
further said, “In 1986, we first made bat by hand. That year, we started
selling those bats in local market. Having seen our success in this business, many
people started making bats.”
Cricket
bat factories have now been spread to other villages beyond Narendrapur, such
as Mohajerpara, Balrampur, Rudrapur etc. In total, more than 60-65 factories
have been built. At the beginning, in those factories, all works were done manually,
but many people are now doing it with machine. As a result, the production
speed has been increased. In those factories, around 50-60 thousand bats are
being made in a month.
Sanjit
said that Chatian, Kadam, Neem, Jibon, Pithagara, Amra and other different
types of local woods are used to make bat. Alongside the employees, the
housewife and children of the family also lend their hands in making cricket
bats by doing little things such as applying pudding as well as putting sticker
on bats, packaging, scrubbing etc.
Workers
involved in production of cricket bats said that if they make 100 bats, they
get Tk 1000-1500 in wage. It is possible for them to make 400 bats in a week.
Others do the work of applying pudding, putting sticker and polishing bat.
Omar
Ali has been working in cricket bat factory for 10-11 years in this area. He
said, “Cost of each bat is Tk 55-60. It is sold at Tk 70. Three workers under my
direction do this work.” He also revealed, “I am now quite well-off than
before.”
Omar
Ali also said that apart from the market in Jashore, cricket bats made by them
are bought by businessmen from the regions of Bogura, Dinajpur, and Rangpur.”
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