Marufa Akter (; born 1 January 2005) is a Bangladeshi

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who plays for the

Bangladesh women's national cricket team The Bangladesh women's national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Bangladesh in international women's cricket matches. They made their international debut when they played, and won, two matches against Thailand in July 200 ...

as a right-arm medium fast bowler.

Early life

She born in

Nilphamari District Nilphamari District () is a district in Northern Bangladesh. It is a part of Rangpur Division. It is about 400 kilometers to the northwest of the capital Dhaka. It has an area of . Nilphamari is bounded by Rangpur and Lalmonirhat in east, ...

of Bangladesh and she lives in Saidpur, a small town in the Nilphamari district. Her father is a farmer. Her older brother encouraged her to play cricket. Her favorite player is

Hardik Pandya Hardik Himanshu Pandya (born 11 October 1993) is an Indian international Cricket, cricketer who plays for the India national cricket team, Indian cricket team. He is an all-rounder who is a right-handed middle order batsman and Fast bowling, f ...

. In the perior of lock down she handed over her first earnings from cricket in Cox's Bazaar training camp of US$ 412. Marufa went on to attend the country's biggest sports institution: Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) where she learnt some of the skills she showed off on the world's biggest stage.

International career

In November 2022, Marufa was earned maiden call-up for national team of Bangladesh to ODI and T20I squad for the series against New Zealand. She made her

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) debut against New Zealand in the same series on 4 December 2022. She made her

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) debut against New Zealand on 11 December 2024. In December 2022, she was selected to

Bangladesh women's under-19 cricket team Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world and among the most densely populated with a population of over 171 million within an area of . Bangl ...

for the

2023 Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup The 2023 ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup was the first edition of the Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup, hosted by South Africa in 2023. The tournament was moved from its original slot at the end of 2021 to January 2023 because of the COVID-19 p ...

. She took 8 wickets from that tournament with best bowling figure 2/16 in 4 overs against United Arab Emirates women's under-19 cricket team. In January 2023 she was named in Bangladesh's T20I squad for the

2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2023 Women's T20 World Cup was the eighth edition of Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in South Africa between 10 February and 26 February 2023. The final took place at Cape Town. Australia won their sixth and third consecutiv ...

. She took 4 wickets in that tournament with best bowling figure 3/23 in 4 overs against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. On 16 July 2023, she took 4 wickets of 29 runs in her 7 overs in the first ODI again India, helping Bangladesh to first win against India in ODIs by 40 runs, and she got

Player of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

award. In August 2023, she was selected to the national team for the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

. She was the part of

Bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

winning team of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

in that tournament. In January 2024, Marufa was nominated for

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

Awards 2023 Women's ODI bowling for her maiden four-wicket haul against India, and won that award in the following month. She was named in the Bangladesh squad for the

2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2024 Women's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the Women's T20 World Cup. Originally scheduled to be hosted in Bangladesh from 3 to 20 October 2024, it was later relocated to the United Arab Emirates for the same dates due to political ...

. Akter was part of the Bangladesh squad for the

2025 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2025 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier was an international women's cricket tournament that was held in Pakistan in April 2025. The tournament served as the final stage of the qualification process for the 2025 Women's Cricket World ...

in Pakistan in April 2025.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akter, Marufa 2005 births Living people Bangladesh women One Day International cricketers Bangladesh women Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2022 Asian Games Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in cricket Asian Games bronze medalists for Bangladesh