Our Correspondent, Faridpur

Cricket is now one of the most popular outdoor games in the country and its equipment, especially the ones to be played with taped tennis balls, are high in demand.

A resident of Basu Narosinhadia village in Sadar upazila is cashing in on the demand by setting up a cricket stump factory in the upazila.

The 35-year-old man, Omar Faruk, now has six employees at the factory that he started eight years ago in Kanaipur Bazar area of Kanaipur union.

Demand for the stumps reaches its peak during the winter when the workers often do not even find any time to talk to each other, trying to catch up with the orders pending for delivery.

Speaking with this correspondent at the factory, Faruk said success did not come overnight. Before starting the factory, he spent two years in Dhaka at another factory where he worked full time and learned the skills to make cricket stumps.

Now no one in surrounding areas has to go to the capital or to a larger town to buy quality stumps. “I feel really proud when I see kids playing cricket with stumps made in my factory.”

Locally available wood -- mahogany, shishu, akashi and chambal -- is used as primary raw material for making stumps and he usually makes a profit between Tk 16,000 and 18,000 from selling 7,000 to 8,000 stumps each month, Faruk also said.

Nazim Matobbar, a worker who has been working at the factory for three years, said they are paid Tk 2.25 for each stump and he can make 270 to 300 stumps a day. Buyers from different districts including Dhaka, Bogura, Rangpur and Sirajganj arrive at the factory every day to collect stumps at whole sale prices.

Winter is the busiest time when they start work at 8:00 in the morning and close at 12:00 midnight. But during the wet season, the workers have no work to do as there is usually no order for stumps that time, he added.

Fakir Belayat Hossain, chairman of Kanaipur Union Parishad, said, “Faruk’s stumps are really high in quality. It’s a good thing for the neighbourhood that six people are working at his factory.”