The Banglasdesh Cricket Board is confident it will make the Sylhet Divisional Stadium functional within the next 10 days, in spite of its failure to keep its commitment to have it ready by now.
‘It will take 10 days to make it functional,’ Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the chief executive officer of the BCB, said on Tuesday. ‘Though some more time might be required to complete the touch-up works, major portion of the work would be finished and would be good enough to satisfy the ICC inspection team,’ he added.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan had hoped that the Sylhet facility would be ready by November 10 – well ahead of the International Cricket Council deadline, which had been extended to November 30 after the BCB failed to meet the original September 30 deadline and a subsequent extension to October 30.
Progress at the site – as well as work at the Cox’s Bazar venue – was unsatisfactory to the ICC inspection team during their several visits, raising doubts over whether it would be fit to host matches during the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh from March-April 2014.
The stadiums received worldwide attention after the ICC said it was concerned about the venues and would consider scrapping them from their plans if works were not completed by July.
The BCB had constructed the Cox’s Bazar venue – a temporary structure at the Saibal golf course – for an undisclosed amount from its own funds, while the government spent Tk 4 crore 11 lakh on improving the Cox’s Bazar District Stadium, which was being prepared as a practice venue.
Eventually the ICC decided to scrap the Cox’s Bazar stadium from the list of venues for the mega tournament. It approved the Sylhet venue, but doubts remained because of ongoing development works at the stadium.
The ICC announced on October 27 that Sylhet would host all 22 first-round matches for the women’s event and six matches in the qualifying round for the men’s event, making it the busiest venue of the tournament.
The Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong will also host matches during the men’s qualifying round, as well as all the Group 1 matches in the Super 10 stage.
The Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka will host the opening match on March 16, 2014 and all the Super 10 Group 2 matches. It will also host both semi-final matches and the final, on April 6, 2014.
-With New Age input
