Bangladesh forced to change World Cup jersey design after fans see red

Friday, 3 May 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Bangladesh players, support staffers and officials pose for a team photograph

ESPNCricinfo: Fan uproar has forced the Bangladesh Cricket Board to change the colour scheme of the team’s main World Cup jersey, after they had initially designed an all-green kit with no red in it. Red has been an important part of Bangladesh’s limited-overs kits and is an integral part of the country’s flag.

ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the ICC didn’t actually ask the BCB to drop red from their jersey, but to avoid using the colour to write the team name and numbers on the green background, as that would make it difficult to read.

The ICC had initially approved a BCB design of a green jersey with a red stripe and white lettering. But the BCB subsequently submitted three more designs for the green kit that had no stripes, red writing, and white writing. The ICC asked the BCB to avoid using red for the letters of players’ names and numbers because, against a green background, it would make it difficult to read. The board sent another design that had the writing in white on both the home and away kits, but no red anywhere. The ICC approved that design.

After the final approval, the BCB unveiled the jersey on Monday, with BCB president Nazmul Hassan handing it over to Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza prior to an official photo-op in Dhaka.

“After the jersey unveiling yesterday, I sat with the board directors to look at the jersey again,” Hassan said on Tuesday. “Someone spotted the lack of red in the jersey. We have now decided to add the red to our jersey.”

The jersey in question is one of two for the World Cup, in accordance to the ICC’s regulation to have home and away strips for the marquee event. “Initially, it was the ICC who told us to not have the red in our jersey,” Hassan said. “We have a separate jersey, completely red [with white lettering], for some of the other games.”

The new design has a red patch along the middle of the jersey with the team’s name in white on it, as well as around the sleeves. “We have usually had red and green in our jerseys over the years but there were times when we didn’t have the red,” Hassan said. “I remember it was yellow and green during the 1999 World Cup and the 2000 Asia Cup. We have, in the past, also left to an open competition to design the jersey, but since this is an ICC event, we had to send them the design for their approval.”

The BCB, for the first time, has also sold worldwide rights to a local company to market replicas of the national team jerseys. Hassan confirmed that the board has already informed the concerned parties about the new design, which will hit the market whenever they are ready.