'Incheon wickets to suit BD spinners'
Bangladesh's hopes of winning gold medals in the Asian Games centres mostly around cricket and the last edition's gold medallists are expected to get familiar pitches in Incheon.
The seven newly-laid pitches at the Yeonhui Cricket Ground, which are only six months old, tend to offer low but even bounce and turn for the spinners, according to Badiul Alam Khokon, the former curator of Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium who is now in charge of preparing the pitches here.
"The pitches at Yeonhui will offer low and slow but even bounce and I think that will suit Bangladesh players, who are used to playing in similar sort of surfaces at home," said Khokon, who was appointed in April on a seven-month tenure.
At first look, the lone cricket ground of South Korea looks good except for the outfield, which looks drier than the usual greenish cricket fields. The steel structures of the dressing rooms, the pavilions, the press box, crew rooms and the umpires' rooms are all installed temporarily and are removable.
There are four pitches for practice outside the stadium even though the main practice venue is situated in Sangdo, a posh area of Incheon.
With the cricket event starting from September 20, TV broadcasters have been setting up the cables in the middle; the painters are giving their final touches to the temporary structures.
Bangladesh will be playing in the Asian Games for the second time since the discipline was introduced in the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, where Bangladesh won gold in the men's event and silver in the women's.
The women's event will get underway from September 20 and Bangladesh will play directly in the quarterfinal stage against the runners-up of Group D, comprising Thailand, Nepal and Malaysia, on September 24. The men's team will start their campaign against the runners-up of Group B consisting of Nepal, Kuwait and Maldives on October 1.
Having seen the three practice matches between Japan and Korea held recently at this ground, the 50-year-old curator says the average score on these pitches could be around 130, but Test playing nations might score more than that.
The Bangladeshi curator also informed that spinners would get an edge here as the novice spinners of South Korea are doing well on these pitches.
“From what I have seen in recent practice matches held here among the local clubs and the Korean team, spinners are getting good turn on the pitch," said Khokon, who prepared pitches with black mud brought from Pakistan.
A total of 28 matches -- men's and women's combined -- will take place on this ground over 14 days. Even though there is underground drainage system at the ground, Khokon is seemingly a bit worried about the maintenance of the pitches during the competition. However, he is confident of overcoming that obstacle through the experience he had gained during the Dhaka Premier Division League.
“To be honest, it was a challenging job for me because no one here had any idea about the facilities a cricket ground requires. They thought it was a ground like baseball's. Whenever I asked for instruments, they were questioned me why I needed them and I had to tell them, they're for cricket,” said Khokon.
Lee Yookyoo, in charge of the cricket ground and practice venue, is satisfied with the progress of the venue and hopes that the cricket matches would be completed successfully.
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