Teams await batting friendly wickets in new venue Sylhet
Spectators want to enjoy high scoring matches
Syed Mohammed Pithu
As the fifth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is approaching fast, the question which came to the fore that as to how the wicket would behave and whether the wicket produce low scoring affair yet again. The last four editions of BPL saw utmost low scoring affair, much to the disappointment of the spectators and even the local and foreign players. Players like Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, England all-rounder Ravi Bopara straightway revealed their frustration over the wicket, leaving chief curator Gamini De Silva face a volley of questions continuously.
Wicket doesnt behave good, Shakib said while Mashrafe said, This is not totally a T20 like wicket. This is really tough wicket. You cant play spin here and even you cant face the pace bowlers comfortably. It is totally slow, Ravi Bopara said.
At the same time, the fans constantly were used to thrash the BPL wicket by seeing low scoring affair.
In T20 cricket, everyone wants to see huge runs, the shower of four and sixes. Because the T20 cricket is not only a competitive game, but also give the crowd entertainment, you need to produce a wicket to offer gigantic wicket, Swapnil Rony, a university going student wrote in his facebook page.
Gamini De Silva then defended him by saying that, No other ground in the world holds such numerous numbers of matches continuously. It doesnt get any rest indeed.
In the first BPL, the average run per innings was 143, while in the second edition it was 147. But later in the two editions the scoring rate went down dynamically with 133 and 141 in per innings. It meant, the BPL is yet to see the run scoring rate per innings soar to 150, which is quite a disappointing number.
However this year the BPL is seeing a new venue in Sylhet. Although the venue held some matches, it will hold such sort of big tournament for the first time. The behaviour of the wicket is yet to be unknown though the organisers assured that this year the BPL will see lot of runs in not only Sylhet but also in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The organisers know well that the spectators come in BPL to see huge runs, which is why, they put a lot of effort to make the matches high scoring one. They ensured that the wicket this year would be batting friendly to give the fans a chance of seeing high scoring thriller.
Wicket doesnt get enough rest, this sort of statement however wont be a legal logic this time around because after hosting the Test series against Australia in the first week of October, no venues of Dhaka and Chittagong hosted any matches. So in that sense, the venues get much rest and the curators and groundsmen have got enough time to prepare the ground.
With Sylhet International Cricket Stadium hosting the first phase of the tournament, the venue of Dhaka and Chittagong also have the time to get some more rest.
However it is still believed that making the wicket in Chittagong and Dhaka would be tougher because those wickets are naturally slower type of wicket. Since Sylhet couldnt host enough number of matches, it is yet to be guessed how the new venue will behave.
