BSS, Dhaka :
The behaviour of the sporting wicket of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium of Mirpur came as surprise for many in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
It was not as slow and low as it used to be. The bounce is even and the ball comes to the bat nicely, giving the batters to dispatch it with ease. Similarly, a bowler can still extract life from it if he remains disciplined. Overall it’s a sporting wicket for which the players have been craving for so long.
Even though time is not ripe yet to say it changed the character radically, it’s true the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium has never seen a series of 190 plus total in consecutive four matches.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Faruque Ahmed said the sporting wicket is the first step to make the BPL ‘different’ as promised.
Off the field the BPL was totally different this time than the previous editions. The BCB unmasked the BPL mascot for the first time which made a tour to create the type. Three concerts in three venues of the BPL were held.
But Faruque, the first cricketer who became BCB President, knew all those efforts would go in vain if the standard of wicket remains low like the previous time.
Although the responsibility for good cricket lies largely on the cricketers, it is difficult to play good cricket if the wicket is not good. Before the start of the BPL, the board president had a clear message to Mirpur’s Sri Lankan curator Gamini de Silva – “The wicket must be sporting, so that both batters and bowlers get equal advantage.”
“I had already instructed the curator that the wicket should be sporting. I want such a wicket where batters can score runs and bowlers can take wickets if he bowls well. Two and a half millimeters of grass has been kept on the wicket. The grass could have been kept even less, but in that case the wicket would not have been good later on. I have said to keep the wicket like this,” Faruque told the reporters on Tuesday.
Relevantly, the BCB President mentioned that the ODI series against the West Indies held in St. Kitts earlier this month. Bangladesh were swept in that series but all matches of the series were high scoring, Bangladesh even lost, scoring 294 and 321 in the first and last matches and that was an eye opener for the team management.
They believe if Bangladesh batters get the opportunity to play on sporting wickets regularly, they can hone the art of making 350 runs, which is now a new standard in International Cricket.
But just because it is Mirpur, it cannot be guaranteed that the wicket will remain like this in the remaining matches of the BPL. However, the BCB President is optimistic, “The behavior of the wicket can change for many reasons. I cannot say what will happen in the future. But I hope it will not change much. The sporting wicket will remain. The spectators will see runs in the BPL.”
