The government is confident that the Sylhet and Cox’s Bazar venues will be handed over to the International Cricket Council for the ICC World Twenty20 ahead of the August deadline.
The ICC in its annual conference in London reviewed an inspection report by the venue consultant and expressed their concern about the progress of construction and improvement of playing facilities.
It has threatened to rethink about the venues if there no significant progress is made by August when another inspection will take place.
Abdur Rahman, now a joint secretary of the ministry of youth and sports and previously the director of planning at the National Sports Council, however, said there is little thing to be concerned.
‘We are confident of delivering the venues before the stipulated time,’ Rahman told New Age. ‘The work is in full flow at the Sylhet stadium and there is no reason we cannot deliver it to the ICC inspection committee by August,’ he said.
The ICC venue inspection team visited the venues in January and May and found that the development works at both Sylhet and Cox’s Bazar stadiums were far behind schedule for different reasons.
According to the ICC rules, the venues need to be ready six months ahead of the tournament, including adequately meeting the accommodation requirements for the teams.
At the Sylhet stadium NSC is working to build the dressing room, install the floodlights, construct the media centre, fix the giant screen and refurbish some parts of the western gallery.
Apart from these, a hospitality box above the dressing room is also being built for the tournament that will be played from March 16 to April 6, 2014.
Recently the Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan also had voiced his concern over the development of the two venues. However, he is also now convinced that the venues will be ready before the next visit of the ICC team.
‘There is absolutely no doubt the works would be completed in due time,’ Nazmul told reporters at a news conference in London.
‘The government started works late at the Sylhet stadium but now it is going on in full-swing. I have seen the work plan and I am convinced that it would be finished in time,’ Nazmul said.
‘As for the Cox’s Bazar venue, the major issue was the land. Now that we have land we are confident we will meet all the requirements,’ he added.
Abdur Rahman said though the NSC is not directly involved with the Cox’s Bazar stadium which is scheduled to host the women’s games of the World T20, there is no reason to worry.
He also cleared the recent confusion over the real owner of the ground after contradicting claims were made by the NSC and the BCB.
‘The BCB is funding the Cox’s Bazar stadium for making it ready for the T20 competition,’ said Rahman.
‘The NSC will take over the stadium after the event to develop the infrastructure,’ said Rahman.
‘As there is no infrastructural development involved there is no reason to worry,’ he added.
A team led by Zahid Reza Babu, curator of the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, is currently working on preparing the pitch in Cox Bazar, said the officials.
They are currently working to lay six pitches and then they will level the ground with bulldozer.
The BCB president said they will use the BKSP ground for the women’s leg, which will now see 10 teams, two more than the initial plan as the ICC decided to add three qualifiers instead of one.
‘We already have two other alternative venues. For Sylhet we have Fatullah, a full-fledged and world-class stadium which has already hosted international matches,’ said Nazmul.
‘As for Cox’s Bazar, we can host the women’s matches at BKSP where we have prepared two grounds according to the ICC guidelines.’
-With New Age input
