Bowled over by Veetee? (19 May 1999)

19 May 1999

Bowled over by Veetee?

Nizamuddin Ahmed

LONDON, May 18: The torment of Bangladesh cricket team, now playing against the Test might of Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and the West Indies, may overrun the cricket ground and leave the poor nation with a squandered commercial opportunity.

Whereas the Bangladesh Cricket Board will not have any say in the outcome of the five group matches (including the match against Scotland) and beyond if we qualify, its members seem to have been taken for a ride and dumped in the freezing lake.

Alas! They could have laughed all the way to the bank.

All the teams participating in the World Cup have sponsors. There are no complaints as this is an event to make money. The Pakistan cricketers flash the Pepsi logo, the Indians the Wills tag and the West Indians the Kingfisher label.

Bangladesh, in the cauldron for the first time, sport the red and white strip of "Veetee". Relatively unknown as a product or a sponsor in the sporting circles, it has reportedly something to do with rice trading.

Suitable, some would say for Bangladesh, because we are major consumers of the grain.

Whereas the backers of other teams have had to count money in their millions, this author dares not to speculate, BCB has made a deal with Veetee for an amount of only 15,000 pound sterling.

Several BCB sources contacted in London and in surrounding areas have confirmed the amount but tried to wash their hands off the deal saying that the issue has "never been discussed in a board meeting".

Amazing, how we can run an institution in medieval style and expect to compete at the highest level at the threshold of the third millennium!

One would be at liberty to question the narrow wisdom of BCB for selling off so cheaply, and yet the board is not even receiving all of the 15,000 contracted.

Veetee will deduct 3,500 pound sterling for the playing garments of the team. So they will pay only 11,5000 pound sterling in cash. But, that's not the end of the deal. Veetee will also have to be given 10 complimentary tickets for each match, which by rough calculation would amount to 1,000 pound sterling for the five group matches.

It could not be known immediately whether the ticket deal extends beyond the first round. If so, then it would mean further financial loss for Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh team receives 75 complimentary tickets for each match. Forty of those are given to the team members. Having pledged 10 to the sponsor, Veetee, the team is left with only 25 tickets with which to cater for BCB officials and other friends of the board.

Any additional tickets required, and there is so much demanded of the team here, that BCB would have to procure those.

On inquiry here, it was learnt that the BCB could have approached several English companies, who would have been greatly interested. In the words of one BCB official, "Fifteen thousand pounds is 15,000 taka to these people".

"This amount is nothing compared to what the other teams are getting from their sponsors," said another.

Talking to some big business houses of the sub-continent, it was gathered that more than one of them would have been able to quadruple the Veetee amount if approached.

"The proposal was not even forwarded to any of the regular sponsors of cricket in Bangladesh," disclosed a banker on a tour to London who has been involved with the activities of the board for more than a decade.

Meril paid about Tk 25 lakh as sponsor of the recent tri-nation tournament in Dhaka.

Expressing his surprise at the arrangement made by BCB with Veetee, a respectable merchant of Brick Lane area said, "The board could have approached business houses in London with the help of the High Commission here. Bangladesh would definitely have got a better deal".

Replying to "how much?" an English cricket official at the Lord's said, "a hundred thousand (pounds sterling) was not impossible for Bangladesh".

Such is the sensitivity of the issue that several BCB officials now in London have declined to comment and others have requested anonymity before the matter is discussed at a board meeting in Dhaka.

Some sources close to the BCB have hinted at an underhand deal that has left the board poorer. One senior board member said, "Technically, it is not a contract as the board did not discuss it, nor approve of it".

Asked why he should not be held responsible for the deed, the BCB member, a true gentleman by nature, opted to remain silent at the other end of the telephone.

Source :: The Daily Star