Only 6,000-7,000 seats on offer during NZ series
If you are planning to go to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur next month to watch the one-day series between Bangladesh and New Zealand, you better book your tickets early.
It is very apparent now that a very small number of spectators can watch the matches from the stands during the five-match series, as the Mirpur venue cannot hold even half of its 26,000-capacity.
The “Home of Cricket” is now under construction for the 2011 World Cup as six out of eight matches including two quarterfinals will be take place at this venue.
The pace of the work has caused the seating arrangement to be incomplete, forcing the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to print a maximum of 10,000 tickets for each match, of which almost two to three thousand will be complimentary tickets, leaving at best 6,000-7,000 seats for the general public.
New Zealand will arrive in Dhaka on September 28 to play five one-day internationals against the Tigers at Mirpur. The first match will be held on October 5 while the subsequent matches are scheduled for October 8, 11, 14 and 17 respectively.
“For the greater interest, we have to accept some difficulties for the coming series. Within a very short time we will get a guideline from the local organising committee (LOC) about the capacity for the series,” said BCB’s director and tour organising secretary Gazi Ashraf Hossain.
“But the number will not be more than 10,000. From them we are not sure how much we can offer for sale as we have to print an estimated number of complementary tickets also,” said Ashraf, adding that BCB’s ticket and seating committee will make the deal for the ticket sponsor within 2-3 days.
The board has to use the manual scoreboard as there is no chance for the electronic one to be installed by the time of the series, while there is hardly any chance to see the giant screen also being set up.
Sources have said that the progress of the renovation work was not satisfactory and it will be further delayed as Gazi Ashraf informed that the development work will be stopped on match days.
“We should stop the development work on match days and there is no other choice,” said Ashraf.
Though the tour organising secretary said that they were waiting for guidelines from the LOC, the host tournament director Ali Ahsan Babu could not give a clear picture of the progress of the development work.
“It’s very difficult to say right now about the percentage of work that has been completed so far,” said Babu.
“For the New Zealand series, the capacity will be more or less 10,000 but it is not confirmed yet. As far as I know, everything is going according to plan. We are hopeful that the floodlights will be installed by next month and all the other things will be also done according to the schedule,” said Babu.
