Lobby speaks out about Bangabandhu Stadium to be used for WC2011

Ahmed_B · #1 May 3, 2006, 01:09 PM

After coming back from the ICC meeting BCB president Ali Asgar Lobby mentioned that Bangabandhu National Stadium may be taken as a venue for the World Cup 2001 matches. He claimed that Football or no other sports are shoing any promise that Cricket has shown. And since World cup is a very big event for the country.. so BNS should be used as a venue for it.

-NTV/Channel-I news.

sadi · #2 May 3, 2006, 02:31 PM

I don't understand why Football get to keep BNS.... faizlamir ekta shima thaka dorkar...

Orpheus · #3 May 3, 2006, 03:23 PM

11 you mean

Bancan · #4 May 3, 2006, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadi
I don't understand why Football get to keep BNS.... faizlamir ekta shima thaka dorkar...

football's not that gr8 in our country. its doesnt get that much international coverage. cricket does. BNP doesnt want the name Bangabondu to be mentioned.

Thats wat i read in prothom -alo sometime back

Fazal · #5 May 3, 2006, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bancan
football's not that gr8 in our country. its doesnt get that much international coverage. cricket does. BNP doesnt want the name Bangabondu to be mentioned.

Thats wat i read in prothom -alo sometime back

If thats the problem, then why not change the name to "Duke" Stadium or something like that?

As far as I know based on past and present government, its not that hard a job to do that.

Tigers_eye · #6 May 3, 2006, 04:03 PM

Why bring in BNP-AL in this?
When 1st Watmore came to BD, which stadium did he chose and why? And I thought that was the best idea to move away from all the chaos trafic jam.

That BNS stadium needs a major reconstruction to facilitate mordern demands. the dressing room can be compared to 3rd class dressing room. I am sure the shower area is uncomparable. How would you guys plan to train the boys? swim in the field during the mansoon season? That's the only closest swimming pool we will have. or the drain'er pani outside the stadium.

Speaking of tradition: There are not much cricketing tradition other than losses and few draws in 60's. New tradition will be created for the generations to come. Like Bogura and cardiff. Hopefully Mirpur will bring victory in the test arena.

Omio · #7 May 3, 2006, 05:28 PM

We wanna to c all of the match in BNS..

al Furqaan · #8 May 3, 2006, 05:28 PM

wait...BNS capacity is only 36K, mirpurs is 60K

they should have all WC 2011 matches at mirpur, end of story

Hatebreed · #9 May 3, 2006, 07:35 PM

Instead of lingering on BNS, BCB should concentrate on improving Mirpur as a world-class stadium. They should prepare the ground from stratch, provide good seating, a modern commentry box/media centre, better facilities, safer and cleaner environment, etc.

Ahmed_B · #10 May 4, 2006, 01:26 AM

Sorry guys.. for being so brief on the news. Actually... Channel-I showed an interview of Lobby about it also. It appeared from his way of talking that the whole thing is a prestige issue for Bangladesh. There are certain conditions for an international venue to be capable of hosting world-cup matches. For example.. existence of international level Hospital within close proximity.. etc. For this reason, BCB could not propose any of the venues outside Dhaka as world-cup venue. And in the proposal, BCB seems to have wanted to show as many capable venues as possible for proving their worth as a host for the big event. So they included Mirpur+BNS+Fatullah since all of them are already recognized as ICC-venues and fulfill the criteria. However my guess is that, for this same issue of grandness of the event, BCB probably won’t want to host all the matches in just one venue (i.e Mirpur) .... and considering the availability of urban facilities and communication BNS surely comes ahead of Fatullah.
Some replies to cats_eye’s posts here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats_eye
Why bring in BNP-AL in this?

Simple reason.
Because the BNP-AL politics is almost the sole reason for BNS to get curtailed as a cricket Venue. It was definitely a great move to Build Mirpur as a complete cricket complex. But the reason for which BNS was handed over to Soccer was it's name. Do you know that Foodtball Federation has already built a complete football stadium very near to Motijheel already(attached to the Federation Headquarter) and that is a very much new-look modern stadium? I have visited that stadium personally... and the first thing that came to my mind was why on earth does Football need two complete stadiums (BNS & the new one)in the heart of Dhaka City after having such poor performance all-over?!?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats_eye
And I thought that was the best idea to move away from all the chaos trafic jam.

I'm not sure how long you havn't been in dhaka... but the access roads to Mirpur stadium are almost as jammed as BNS and it will be all the same for any location in dhaka except for maybe the Gulshan-Banani-Uttara area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats_eye
That BNS stadium needs a major reconstruction to facilitate mordern demands. the dressing room can be compared to 3rd class dressing room. I am sure the shower area is uncomparable. How would you guys plan to train the boys? swim in the field during the mansoon season? That's the only closest swimming pool we will have. or the drain'er pani outside the stadium.

These facilities can be renovated quite easily considering the amount of money BCB earns at the moment. However.. BNS doesn't need to become a 'complete-cricket-academy'... it just needs to have the facilities that an International cricket venue needs. That is not really as much work as you are thinking it would be. You can take my words as a professional opinion on this matter.

Personally... I don’t mind if the WC matches are shared between Mirpur and BNS rather than Fatullah. More than one venue is definitely better for the Great Grand Event....after-all, this is the BIGGEST cricket festival on earth!

cricketboy · #11 May 4, 2006, 02:02 AM

I do disagree with a lot of you guys. Bangabhandhu stadium is our heritage, the finest stadium Bangladesh has in terms of history. Not staging a match there will be sad. I think Bangabhandhu stadium has more capacity than Mirpur, its official is 36,000 although whoever went to the stadium knows it can take atleast 70000 people. The atmosphere for a day-night match is wonderful in BNS and nothing compares with that. Not having a match there will be like having a WOrld CUp in England and not staging a match in Lords.

sadi · #12 May 4, 2006, 08:48 AM

Good post Ahmed bhai. We grew up watching games in BNS and just like cricketboy mentioned, BNS is like Lords to us. I don't think Football deserves it in the first place. Its so much convenient for everyone to commute from BNS and definately this is our number one stadium. Mirpur will be definately ahead in terms of facility and stuff but BNS should host one or two games atleast. Countries bulid new stadiums ahead of world cup and all we need to do is renovate it.

Miraz · #13 May 4, 2006, 09:03 AM

I agree with Ahmed_B that politics is the main cause behind the current fate of BNS. In addition to that I do feel BD politicians still has got more interest in Football than Cricket. More high profile ministers and MP's are associated with Football Federation. They showed their muscle to gain the control of BNS. It's not only the BNP-AL issue or Bangabandhu issue but also football priority of our mathamota politicians (assume they have played Football once but probably never played cricket and many of them do not understand it at all

). Unfortunately I came across one heavyweight MP related with BFF and in his mind Cricket cannot be comparable to Football even though we struggle in SAAF level. In his opinion cricket is like Kho Kho

and getting more importance than it deserves as it is only played by 10 countries in the world

.

sar2005 · #14 May 4, 2006, 10:03 AM

Back in home, I stay 7 taka rikshwa vara away from Mirpur stadium. However, looking into the prospect of cricket crazy fans attending WC matches, I would definitely say BNS would be a better option. But Mirpur could be rated over Fatullah in terms of locations. I can still remember the days of early 90s when I was going Mirpur stadium to see Jukov, Rohimov in action. Provided that the stadium is huge, it was good crowd watching matches those days. I went to see some matches in Mirpur stadium in 2002. There were 2 matches (semifinals) including Mohammedan, Abahoni, Brothers and Muktijoddah. Unfortunately the crowd was one fourth of the capacity. Of course, by that time, crowd lost their interest to football rather than much to the location of stadium.

Now that fotball is going to have another stadium near komalapur, what's wrong if both Mirpur and BNS is allocated for cricket for at least 2/3 years untill 2011? And by the end of 2011 WC, who will dare to take away BNS from cricket while the whole nation will witness Rahim receiving the WC2011 trophy?

Miraz · #15 May 4, 2006, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sar2005
And by the end of 2011 WC, who will dare to take away BNS from cricket while the whole nation will witness Rahim receiving the WC2011 trophy?

Good comment mate !!

Rabz · #16 May 4, 2006, 10:18 AM

great post Ahmed_B....

i want cricket to be back at BNS...i want BNS to be the center focus of our new sporting culture, surrounding which we will leap forward in the future...
and the only game to do at this present moment is CRICKET....

it would take us another 200 yrs (or more) to reach soccer WC..and we are already hosting cricket's version... so it is just justified that the most prestigious, best and well respected stadium of our country gets to host those matches...

6 yrs is quite a long time to re-develop ONE particular stadium....
i believe we should demolish the BNS current gallery and built a 100,000 capacity proper sitting gallery...after all Dhaka is a city of over 10 Million, its not that hard to fill up only 100,000 seats in our sport loving nation...

both cricket n soccer now has got there spiritual homes respectively, and BNS should be a national stadium shared by all, depending on the season and the importance of the game or tournament....and that way, not only cricket and soccer, but any other major events ( like big concerts) could also be held......

even great stadiums like MCG or SCG is being shared by cricket n rugby on thier respective seasons...why cant be BNS ??

Tigers_eye · #17 May 4, 2006, 10:56 AM

Points taken.
Football is a dying sport in BD whatever... but in terms of heritage and history cricket has only 1/4 of claim of BNS stadium. The other 1/8 will be Hockey, 1/8 miscellaneous and the rest of the half is Football. We have most of our memorable history at BNS is in the sport "Football". Cricket only came to prominence after winning the ICC trophy.

Fattullah, Chittagong and Mirpur should be fine to host 6/8 games. Unless there is a major uplift to the BNS they shouldn't even bother going back there. Why uproot pitches for Football league and spend truck loads of money to fix up after the league every year? Let them (Football) have the field.

Another note: 2011 is 5 years from now. This is the best time to improve health management in other cities like Khulna and Rajshahi. This issue of not having a world class hospital will comeup in the future years of 2011 and beyond when ever we want to host something. What I don't understand is the tunnel vision of our administrators. If we want to host the champions trophy in the future we would only host in two cities?? Infra structure stays and helps the people.

Tigers_eye · #18 May 4, 2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sydney
even great stadiums like MCG or SCG is being shared by cricket n rugby on thier respective seasons...why cant be BNS ??

Unless they have a roof this can not happen in BD. The Mansoon would destroy the two sport thingi.

If Football and Cricket has their own homes in Dhaka then I would propose to destory the BNS and make Bongobondhu National park. We are in great need of trees in Dhaka city.

Miraz · #19 May 4, 2006, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats_eye
Unless they have a roof this can not happen in BD. The Mansoon would destroy the two sport thingi.

If Football and Cricket has their own homes in Dhaka then I would propose to destory the BNS and make Bongobondhu National park. We are in great need of trees in Dhaka city.

Osmani Udyan (Park) very close to BNS is getting destroyed everyday. If BNS is convereted into memorial park it will take the same fate within years. Let BNS be Football's, otherwise BFF will have lots of excuses for demise of Football in BD

Cricket can survive without BNS, it's just a nasty prestige game of our administrators.

TheWatcher · #20 May 4, 2006, 02:55 PM

From today's newspapers, it seems Lobi does not know jack about what's going to happen in 2011. He is still not sure how many matches we are going to get, whether we will need one, two, or three stadia. He is simply beating the bush around.

My feeling is that, at the end, it will be BCCI who will play their big brother role to tell us what to do, where to do

Fazal · #21 May 4, 2006, 04:10 PM

Quote:

If Football and Cricket has their own homes in Dhaka then I would propose to destory the BNS and make Bongobondhu National park. We are in great need of trees in Dhaka city

Good idea. Except that I would propose to rename it Ershard Romance Park. Here is a proposed plan of future Ershard Romance Park (a park with a lake in the middle)

cricman · #22 May 4, 2006, 07:11 PM

Well I heard that the ICC or the Other 3 Asian Nations would not mind paying the WC final at BNS. The Lobbyists are trying to push for us to host the Final or the Opening Match

thebest · #23 May 5, 2006, 03:23 AM

why we are still moaning abt BNS?lets get over it. CB is declaring mirpur as its home and whining about BNS. wanted it for the most prestigious event of cricket. what a hipocrate? if they want BNS, why in the first place they moved to mirpur? why not stick on BNS and continued the tug of war over BNS? with the absymal condition of football, they could get it bt now.

ialbd · #24 May 5, 2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWatcher
From today's newspapers, it seems Lobi does not know jack about what's going to happen in 2011. He is still not sure how many matches we are going to get, whether we will need one, two, or three stadia. He is simply beating the bush around.

My feeling is that, at the end, it will be BCCI who will play their big brother role to tell us what to do, where to do

Lobi has no clue whats going to happen because he doesnt know if he's gonna be there as BCCB boss in 2011. So right now he is more concerned about WC 2006... sorry Election 2006 ....
________
Compass

akabir77 · #25 May 5, 2006, 08:45 PM

Its kinda off topic but i was looking at who voted for the asian wc and found out that three Associate country's that voted r UAE, malaysia and ISRIAL?? How come isrial is in the icc? do they play cricket how come scottland, holand or irish r not the Associate? why all country's r from asia. Does any one knows why? just wondering...