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POST TIME: 10 April, 2018 00:00 00 AM
Sylhet awaits ICC’s approval to become Test venue
Sports Reporter

Sylhet awaits ICC’s approval
to become Test venue

An ICC delegation will come to Bangladesh to visit Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (SICS) in Sylhet in the next month.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director and its women’s wing chairman Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel made the revelation following a meeting at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricekt Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur.

“Our board president Nazmul Hassan Papon meanwhile spoke about the matter. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is communicating with the ICC,” said Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, who is the general secretary of the Sylhet District Sports Association (DSA).

“We expect that ICC will send their delegation to visit Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in the next month. After visiting, the world cricket’s apex body will give us their reorganisation what we had been expecting for a longer period,” Chowdhury told media yesterday.

“Therefore, the fixture of the next home series against the West Indies will be finalised. One Test match among the two-Test series will be held in Sylhet,” he added.

If Sylhet International Cricket Stadium got the approval from the ICC as Test venue, it will then be the eighth-Test venue of the country after Bangabandhu National Stadium, where the Tigers played their maiden Test against India in 2000, Chattagram’s MA Aziz Stadium and Zahur Ahmed Stadium along with Fatullah’s Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Khulna’s Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium, Bogura’s Shaheed Chandu Stadium and Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla Cricket National Stadium.

This Sylhet venue hosted the first round Group-B match of the World T20 between Zimbabwe and Ireland in 2014.

Thereafter, a good number of international matches both men and women’s cricket during the ICC World Cup 2014 were played there.

Recently, it hosted a string of matches of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) for the first time. Along with that, the second and last match of the two-match T20I series between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was also held at this venue.

Since a longer period, the residents of the Sylhet had been demanding that they want to  recognise the venue as the Test venue and see Test match at their venue. BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon during the BPL resonated with them and said that they will try to give a Test in this venue during the next home series against the West Indies.

Nadel also said that they organised Women’s National Cricket League for the first time in Sylhet. Along with that, they have arranged a two-week-long training camp for the Bangladesh women’s cricket team prior to their next away tour to South Africa in April 28.

The BCB director said that they will try to host more matches both national and international in this ground in future.