Richards leaves reassured (1 October 1998)
The International Cricket Council (ICC) have expressed its satisfaction over Dhaka's preparations for the forthcoming Wills International Cup scheduled to begin at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on October 24
01-Oct-1998
1 October 1998
Richards leaves reassured
Sports Reporter
The International Cricket Council (ICC) have expressed its
satisfaction over Dhaka's preparations for the forthcoming Wills
International Cup scheduled to begin at the Bangabandhu National
Stadium on October 24.
"During our three-day stay we have inspected the venue, its flood
lights, the practice venues and also finalised various issues with the
government and the board for the upcoming mega event and we are now
all set for the tournament," said David Richards,Chief executive of
the ICC who arrived in the city on Monday.
Richards also disclosed that two different agreements were signed with
the board and the government during their stay.
"We have signed a contract with the BCB on Tuesday regarding our
sharing of the responsibilities as organiser and hosts. Besides
another agreement was signed with the government this morning on the
security, traffic, power supply,insurance and customs aspects.These
are very basic agreements required for official formalities," he
added.
It might be added that Sadharan Bima Corporation have decided to
extend insurance coverage of the tournament.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Obaidul Quader and BCB president
Saber Hossain Chowdhury signed the agreement on behalf of the
government and the board respectively.
About the newly installed flood lights and dressing rooms at the Dhaka
Stadium, David said," The lights are terrific. I have not seen better
lights anywhere in the world. According to international standards, a
day-night match can easily be played under lights with the capacity of
1800 to 2000 lax, but I found the lights here are of 2400 lax which
has exceeded our expectation. We need some minor adjustments in the
dressing rooms at the practice venues which we hope to get better
before the tournament starts."
Replying to another question, David said that there was never any
possibility of the tournament being shifted from Dhaka.
"We never thought of such a change," he said
He also informed the press that ICC is almost set to sign a contract
with "Kodak" to be the official film sponsor of the knock-out
tournament which involves all the nine Test playing nations. If they
reach to an agreement with Kodak, the press photographers will be
provided with free films during the tournament.
David also revealed that three former international cricketers -
Nasimul Ghani of Pakistan, Bobby Simpson of Australia and Zimbabwean
Andy Pycroft - have been given the responsibility of assessing the
feasibility of awarding Bangladesh the Test status. The three will
visit Bangladesh after the Wills International Cup.
David, who left the city last night, also confirmed that "bowl-out",
a term similar to tie-breaker in football, will be introduced in the
Wills International Cup to get a result from an abandoned match. Five
bowlers from each team will bowl two deliveries each and the team
hitting the stumps most will be declared winners. If the score remains
tied from the first ten deliveries, the result will be decided through
sudden death methods.
Bangladesh Cricket Board President Saber Hossain Chowdhury,
vice-president Tanveer Mazhar Tanna and ICC executive Campbell
Jamieson were also present at the press conference.
Asif Iqbal, the event manager of the Wills International Cup who also
arrived in the city along with David, was not present as he left the
capital for Sharjah last morning.
Asif will be back in Dhaka on October 8 and will stay here until the
tournament ends.
Answering to a question, Saber, the local cricket boss, said that they
have abandoned the idea of holding two international matches between
Bangladesh and two other participating teams.
However, Saber said that there was a possibility of the BCB hosting a
couple of exhibition matches at the BKSP ground between local selects
and New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe will be the first team to arrive on October 17 followed by
New Zealand who will arrive the day after.
Source:: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)