Academy plaque on menu tomorrow
Tommy Miah
Tommy Miah, the Bangladesh-born British celebrity chef, will unveil the plaque to begin construction of his cricket academy tomorrow.
The Tommy Miah Cricket Academy will be built on a two-acre land in Moulavibazar, Sylhet. The phase-by-phase work will be completed in two years as the renowned chef serves up a cricketing institute in his home district.
It will have the usual outdoor pitches, indoor facilities, schools, hostels and an entertainment centre where there will be activities all year round. They will have the academy running from the end of 2012 or early 2013. It will also have a women's wing, informed Tommy Miah in an event at his restaurant yesterday.
Former national captains Khaled Mahmud and Khaled Mashud and national cricketer Tapash Baisya will be present during the ceremony on October 14.
Tommy Miah informed The Daily Star last month that he is in discussion with Bradford College, City and Guild in UK to be affiliated with the academy.
He contacted Farokh Engineer and also talked to Cricket Scotland for their possible involvement.
It will certainly not be the first in the country as Dhaka has a large number of cricket academies while Akij Group's Clemon Cricket Academies across the country are turning out to be a huge source of support for cricket's development in the country.
But to have an international celebrity chef like Tommy Miah getting directly involved in cricket's grassroots will have a unique appeal and probably encourage other such luminaries to come forward and give youths in their hometowns a chance through cricket.
The fact that he decided to open the academy in his native Moulvibazar would not only be a huge boost for cricket in Sylhet, which has been languishing for several years, but also for other districts where cricket is big but the lack of infrastructure badly hurts its development.
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