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Bangladesh Cricket Board kept itself engaged with various companies in different capacities in its long journey, but not all of them appeared to have come with good intentions. Sometimes these companies allegedly used cricket as a tool to create credibility for their Ponzi schemes, which eventually led to the suffering of countless people.
Evaly, a company which is accused of cheating its customers and suppliers by not delivering products in due time, is the latest company to use the most popular sport to get mileage and raise its credibility.
The company became the sponsor of the Bangladesh national cricket team before it toured New Zealand in March-April this year. According to the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the deal was worth Tk 2 crore.
The CEO of Evaly, Mohammad Rassel, is now in police custody for various charges, including fraudulent activities and embezzlement of customers’ money, along with his wife, the Chairman of the company.
However, Evaly is not the first such company to sponsor a cricket event organised by BCB. The list has a few more names like Destiny, Global Neway, Sahara which has raised controversies and faced charges.
Destiny, a multi-level marketing company that made a scam of Tk four thousand crores, were the title sponsor of Bangladesh Premier League 2012 for which it paid the BCB Tk 7 crore. Destiny also sponsored the National Cricket League T20 tournament.
The Managing Director of Destiny, Rafiqul Amin, is now in jail on two charges, embezzlement and money laundering of more than Tk four thousand crores.
In the same year, a company called Global Neway came into the limelight when it paid an astronomical amount for the title sponsor of BPL team Sylhet Royals that was even more than the franchise fee!
Sylhet Royals, like all other franchises, paid taka 7-8 crore as a franchise fee, said BCB President Nazmul Hasan after the franchises demanded profit-sharing from BCB.
Global Neway gave Tk 10 crore for becoming the title sponsor of Sylhet Royals.
Later on, the company also become the team sponsor of the Bangladesh national team in the Asia Cup 2012 for Tk one crore.
The then BCB President was AHM Mustafa Kamal, currently serving as finance minister, announced the deal through a press conference.
Global Neway, the multi-level marketing company, is accused of embezzling at least a thousand crores of Taka from more than 40 thousand customers.
Also in 2012, India’s business giant Sahara Group became the new sponsor of the Bangladesh cricket team for a whopping $9.4 million over four years.
But in April 2015, BCB revealed that it had ended its contract with Aamby Valley, an affiliate of Sahara India Parivar, 15 months before the scheduled end. The board did not reveal why the contract ended prematurely.
Sahara’s financial difficulties over the past year have been a matter of public record, with India’s Supreme Court ordering the group head to remain in its custody pending trial. He was later sent to Tihar Jail, and now he is on parole.
According to India’s capital markets regulator Sebi, Sahara has swindled over Rs 23,000 crore.
Besides the board, cricketers like Mashrafe Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman acted as brand ambassadors of some companies, which are charged with fraudulent activities, and people said that they put their trust in the companies seeing cricketers vouching for it.
Mashrafe was the brand ambassador of the e-orange shop, another controversial company that took advance payments from clients and failed to deliver products in due time.
Enraged clients protested in front of the house of the former captain.
At present, BCB has Alesha Holdings as one of its title partners up to October 2023. Several banks and mobile financial services stopped their transaction with Alesha Mart, an e-commerce platform by the company. It is also one of the 10 e-commerce companies facing investigation from the regulators.
Professor Mizanur Rahman, Chairman of the Marketing Department at the University of Dhaka, believes the cricket board should act more responsibly to prevent such companies by imposing stricter sponsorship guidelines as cricket and cricketers have a great impact on forming opinions.
“If you see, as a businessman or business entity, you cannot complain. BCB floated the tender or offered their service, and the company agreed to pay the fee. BCB does not care from where the money comes, or you can say no seller is concerned about where the buyer is getting the money. That is the basic concept.
“But as cricket is a popular sport and cricketers are popular people, companies like Evaly or Destiny hire them to show that they are a well-reputed company which is absolutely false because the business model is such that it is created to skim money out of pockets,” he told The Business Post.
The BCB does not allow any tobacco and alcohol-producing companies or marketing companies for becoming a sponsor. Online betting companies are also barred.
Mizan thinks that the BCB can add a few more filtrations in the process, “I think as a responsible and reputed sports body, the BCB can add some more screening process for selecting sponsors. You see, the board has to run its operations. So when someone is coming up with the money, you got to take that. But when there are multiple options, choosing the best option depends on the decision-makers.”
