The outfield of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium that hosted first Test of recent series against Australia has got ‘poor’ rating from the International Cricket Council.
The ICC on Thursday said that match referee Jeff Crowe, who officiated the Test from August 27 to 30, expressed his concern over the quality of the outfield.The ICC has forwarded his report to the BCB, which now has 14 days to provide its response.
The BCB’s response will be reviewed by ICC’s general manager (cricket) Geoff Allardice and match referee Ranjan Madugalle before the ICC made a further decision on it.
The matter will now be dealt by clause 4 of the process in which the first occasion of such a rating is dealt with a warning and/or a fine not exceeding $15,000 given together with ‘a directive for appropriate corrective action’.
If it happens again within five years of the first finding, the fine goes up to $30,000.
The BCB officials, however, defended the outfield which was newly-laid before this Test match.
‘We’ll inform them [ICC] in 14 days that it was a new outfield on new soil and everyone knew that how many crews were involved in making this ground ready to host the first Test,’ said BCB’s ground committee chief Hanif Bhuiyan.
‘We planted the grass and made the ground ready in two months where it should have taken at least six months.
‘When the match was going, there were no complaints. Those, who oversaw the game they had to give a report and they did it. The outfield is not a major problem. ‘I think when the grass will grow up day by day think we’ll overcome the problem,’ he said.
Bangladesh won the game by 20 runs for their first ever success against Australia in Tests.
-With New Age input
