The replica of the ICC trophy which Bangladesh had famously won in 1997 finally reached Dhaka on Monday after a long wait and lot of confusion.
ICC chief executive officer David Richardson, who is primarily here leading a delegation to submit the ACSU report on the match-fixing saga of the Bangladesh Premier League, carried the replica.
The ICC was requested to provide a replica after the Bangladesh Cricket Board was left without any memorabilia of an event considered to be one of the greatest achievements of Bangladesh cricket.
The governing body was earlier embarrassed when certain media reports claimed that the trophy was stolen from the cabinet only to clarify later that it had never reached the country in the first place.
The tournament in which Bangladesh had clinched the glittering piece of silverware 16 years ago in Malaysia is nowadays known as the ICC World Cup Qualifiers.
The BCB had to pay 5,000 dirham for the replica, which roughly equals to Tk 105,859.
‘It cost us 5,000 dirham for the replica,’ Nizamuddin Chowdhury, BCB acting chief executive officer, told reporters at Mirpur.
Courtesy of winning the tournament, Bangladesh qualified for the 1999 ICC World Cup in England for the first time, where they defeated Pakistan and Scotland in the group stage.
In the same year, Bangladesh was awarded one-day status and was subsequently given Test status in June 26, 2000.
Bangladesh played their inaugural Test match against neighbours India at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in November 10-13.
-With New Age input
