Athletics and swimming, the two key disciplines of the forthcoming Bangladesh Games, are unlikely to match international standard due to a lack of proper equipment and poor venue management.
The Games, scheduled from April 20 to 28, will begin with track and field, breaking a long tradition which saw the events being taken place always at the end of any meet. The event will now start from the second day of the Games on April 22, but organisers are concerned if they will be able to meet any standard as the synthetic athletics turf at the Bangabandhu National Stadium is in a terrible condition at present.
Big holes and cracks have developed all around the turf in recent times which left it dangerous for athletes, who will come from all over the country.
Bimal Saha, executive director of Modern Builders, which installed the synthetic turf in 2006 said that the National Sports Council took a move eight months ago to repair the damages but backtracked from the plan later for reasons unknown to them.
`We brought two experts from Germany to assess the affected turf eight months ago. After assessment they gave some observations and also provided us with an estimated budget for repairing it which is around Tk 50 lakh,’ he said.
‘We informed that to NSC but since then they have not yet responded.’
Lack of proper management also left the national swimming complex in Mirpur in a dilapidated condition. The 20 starting blocks that were imported during the SA Games have been left unused as they don’t match with the existing electronic scoreboard development.
`We asked the NSC time and again to repair the electronic scoreboard but they did not pay any heed,’ said Rafiz Uddin, newly appointed general secretary of swimming federation. ‘If it is not repaired we must buy a new one which in my estimate would cost Tk 2 to 3 crore.’
Harunur Rashid, chairman of the steering committee of Bangladesh Games, is still hopeful the necessary renovation of the venues will be carried out by the NSC. He however could not provide any details on how the venues will be renovated in such a short period of time.
-With New Age input
