History not arranged

Mementos like trophies, crests and gifts decorate the aisles of the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.Photo: Anisur RahmanAmeeruddin Zain

If you are standing in front of the museum at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur and wish to take a note of our cricket history you will definitely be in for a shock watching a few trophies won at home and around the world and a couple of mementos gifted by presidents of some Test playing nations. Apart from that you will only find headshots of previous national team captains hanging overhead. This is by any standard a poor cupboard let alone a museum in our 'home of cricket'.

It was a matter of delight and dismay back in 2005 when the heart of Bangladesh cricket was shifted from the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) in Mirpur.

Some hailed it while others hated it. But there was one thing for sure that it ended the long loggerheads between football and cricket for the possession of the BNS. The separation also paved the way for cricket to make its own home at the relatively peaceful settings in Mirpur.

But, how different is our new classy and glassy venue after four years when it comes to being the “Home of Cricket”. How much of Bangladesh cricket does the venue truly represent in terms of showcasing its history and formation and even achievements?

No doubt BNS is the birthplace of our country's cricket and no other sport can claim as much belonging to it as much as cricket can. It was this very arena that hosted our first Test match along with several other accolades our cricket has earned. It was also the place where we played our first official first-class match.

Of course what lies in history will always lie there. The books will always say which ground played host to what special moment.

But the gallery at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium is a reflection of forgetting its past.

Reza-E-Karim, acting secretary of the Bangladesh Cricket Control Board (as it was then called) during its formative years, is saddened by the absence of some very important cricketing history and detail from the game's home.

"All the major cricket grounds in the world especially the main stadium in a country have a space dedicated exclusively to its formation period and its chronicle. You look at Lords, the Wanderers in Johannesburg, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and many others. In ours, we do not even have any framed photograph of our first Test match or even the first Bangladesh team to take part in the World Cup," said the man who believed we could have done more to preserve Bangladesh cricket's birth.

In a candid interview with The Daily Star, Karim recalled the days in 1976 when an article by Englishman Robin Marlar known as "Whither Bangladesh?" prompted him to seek International Cricket Council's (ICC) membership. The famous article which is also absent from our cricket's abode was a detailed description of Bangladesh cricket's state of affairs at that time and included a yearning to see Bangladesh at the international stage.

"It is a tragedy indeed that in the Mirpur stadium, no reference has been made to the board's first constitution which I drafted or the first Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) visit to Bangladesh in 1976, which eventually earned us the ICC associate membership the following year. I worked very hard to convince MCC to pay us a visit, because the ICC would not give us its membership unless the MCC made recommendations. It was also the first international match that the Bangladesh team played. After that visit there were two more MCC visits but none of those are preserved now, there was a whole file which I used to interact with the ICC and MCC and it has just vanished into thin air it seems. I think if the board tries they can retrieve some of the historical pieces because after all, our cricket is only a few decades old," revealed Karim.

Not only is there any space for the constitution or detail of the MCC visits, the very first bat used by a Bangladesh player to open the innings for the country, the first Bangladesh cricket cap, the sweater, the jacket or any other tangible cricketing particulars are also absent to the point of astonishment from Mirpur.

What is most alarming is the non-existence of a framed photograph of our first Test captain Naimur Rahman tossing the coin with his Indian counterpart Sourav Ganguly during the country's inaugural Test match.

Criticisms of the venue are not new but there is no doubt that we have great potential in our country but maybe not in our board to showcase our cricket at the national cricket stadium the right way ahead of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Of course these are not issues, which are of the greatest concern to our cricket board, which at times seem like a money spinning organization oblivious to such rightful acts.

The valuables missing have little to do with the player's performance in the middle or the games development in the country. A museum, a chronological photo gallery, a retail outlet for national team merchandise, an area dedicated exclusively to narrate the story of our country's cricket may not be an idea which will stimulate an everyday person administering the game and may well be discarded off as a poet's thought.

But with the ICC Cricket World Cup on it's way in less than two years time when the whole cricket world will be flocking at the SBNS, it is perhaps not too bad an idea to find those vital pieces and put them in the rightful place.

At least we can tell the whole world and the generations to come that we have arranged the history of our cricket.