Looking in from the outside, it seemed like just another apartment building in the posh residential neighbourhood in Pune. "You are probably wondering, is the cricket museum really here?" said Phill Daniel, a Trinidadian pitch curator, as he greeted this reporter outside.

Seeing my nod of acceptance, he replied, "I'm sure, your doubts will disappear once you step inside."

He was right as in the next two hours, I was amazed by what I saw inside the Blades of Glory Cricket Museum in Pune.

The entire apartment is like a treasure trove for cricket geeks, full of cricket memorabilia.

From signed bats of all batters who have accumulated over 10,000 runs in Tests and ODIs to the signed bats of all World Cup winning captains – the museum had it all.

Cricketing gears used by past greats such as Geoffrey Boycott, Allan Border and even Viv Richards, the bat the great Don Bradman had gifted to South African batter Daryll Cullinan and even Shane Warne's jersey on his debut Test are now property of the Blades of Glory Cricket Museum.

Bangladesh is also present in the museum. A jersey signed by all members of Bangladesh women's cricket team's squad of the 2018 Women's Twenty World Cup is on display, so are the jerseys of Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman.

Rohan Pate, the founder of the museum, revealed that more Bangladesh cricket memorabilia, such as Tamim Iqbal's jersey and the bat with which Mushfiqur Rahim scored a double hundred in Tests, will soon be put on display inside the museum.

Mushfiqur had put up his bat for auction for charity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pakistan legend Shahid Afridi has bought it and now Rohan has acquired it and will soon put it up for display.

Seeing one man put together a museum entirely dedicated to cricket begs the question of why the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has not been able to create a cricket museum.

However, Rohan gave some hope on that front, saying he has contacted the BCB about founding a museum in the soon-to-be-built Sheikh Hasina International Cricket Stadium in Purbachal.

"Given the chance, I want to be a part of building a museum like this in Bangladesh. I've heard that a new stadium is being built in Bangladesh; a museum can be established there," said Rohan.

The museum was inaugurated in 2012 by Sachin Tendulkar

There is a corner dedicated to Sachin in the museum, where the elbow guard and chest guard he used while scoring his 50th Test century, World Cup jerseys worn by him and other such memorabilia are among the exhibits.

There is also a Virat Kohli corner, where there is a scorecard which gets updated every time the talismanic batter scores runs.

The museum's founder was a cricketer himself but is now a contractor. Even though he couldn't make it big as a cricketer, he has now become a world renowned sports memorabilia collector.

"This is the biggest cricket museum in the world as it has a collection of over 70,000 cricket memorabilia. The journey began with a bat Sachin gifted in 2010," Rohan informed.

Rohan is working to enrich his collection in the ongoing World Cup as well. He has already collected bats signed by all members of the Bangladesh and New Zealand squads.

He collected the signatures of the Bangladesh players from the team hotel on Saturday night, and invited the Tigers to pay a visit to his museum.

"Many famous cricketers from across the world have visited the museum. I hope that the Bangladesh team will come to the museum in the next few days," Rohan hoped.

The museum gets around 100 visitors each week. Rohan, who has played age-level cricket and was part of the Maharashtra team in India's first-class competition the Ranji Trophy, hopes that his museum will inspire the stars of the future.

"Young boys and girls who visit the museum get inspired, thinking that one day their memorabilia could also be kept in the museum. Inspiring others like that is important to me."