‘Fatullah stadium’s condition brought tears to my eyes’

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul said that the current state of the 'Fatullah' stadium has brought tears to his eyes.

Shaheed Ria Gope Stadium, formerly known as Fatullah Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, hosted its last Test back in 2015 when the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque played against India in a one-off Test.

Waterlogging was a major issue at the ground which prevented international fixtures from being scheduled in the venue in the past such as the Australia Test series in 2017.

BCB sources today said that not much work has been done to make the venue ready for cricket. The ground will have to be raised further with new soil in both outer ground and the main stadium.

Aminul attended a program titled 'Cricket development and Idea' organised by the Narayanganj district sports association and went to see the stadium as part of his trip to Narayanganj.

"Even now the interest in cricket from Narayanganj has made me very happy. Before coming here, I went to the Fatullah stadium. The stadium's miserable conditions brought tears to my eyes. There was a time the venue hosted many national and international matches but now it's in miserable condition," Aminul said during the program.

The BCB president has been checking out venues and infrastructures in divisions such as Chattogram, Khulna, Sylhet and others and said that in line with the idea of decentralizing cricket, Narayanganj needs development.

"Players need to have more opportunities and facilities. I saw three wickets here. Our play is to build at least 20 wickets here. In our time, there was a specific time when cricket was played but now matches take place in all twelve months. So aside from increasing benefits for our players, we will try to improve benefits for coaching as well," he said.

Aminul hoped Narayanganj would develop to the point that cricketers won't have to go to Dhaka.

"We are hoping that in the next one-and-a-half years, we would develop Narayanganj such that players do not have to go to Dhaka to play at different levels. They will get there coaches here. We have everything in our pipeline. I am confident in saying all these since during my time at ICC, these were the things I was working on," the BCB president said.