The next major venue?
The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium will be the eighth venue in the country to host an international match involving the home side when the second T20I is held there today. The neatly-arranged venue in the Lakkatura Tea Estate has however previously hosted T20 matches involving international teams. The venue had gone through major uplifts and renovations to host the qualifying games of the 2014 T20 World Cup. Besides those, 24 Women's T20 World Cup group games were also held at this venue the same year.
This ground captured the attention of the domestic audience when it staged the first leg of the Bangladesh Premier League, the popular T20 domestic competition last year. It has got almost everything an international venue demands. The venue can be a major place for international games for Bangladesh as two of its premier venues -- the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur and the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong -- have already received demerit points.
Unlike Dhaka and Chittagong, this ground offers more bounce, which is good for stroke-play. The unique feature is its grass bank is close to the grand stand. It is actually the typical slope of a tea garden with so many stairs. But unfortunately, it is not as green as the ground is. It attired a greyish look, which the authorities attributed as a winter-effect. But it was understandably more to do with how you tend it. At the moment it is part of the stands. And like all the stands this grass bank only gets a face-lift before an international game.
If this grass bank had been part of the ground, it could have been as green as the outfield. When asked, the curator of this ground, Nuruzzaman Nayan, a former cricketer, said the grass bank was not part of the ground. So they were not obligated to take care of it. So, the wise idea would be to include that area as part of the ground if the venue wants a true grass bank in its repertoire.
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