Home ›› 07 Feb 2022 ›› Sport
Sylhet International Cricket Stadium has found the chance of hosting Bangladesh Premier League matches after almost two years as the Sylhet phase of the franchise-based Twenty20 league begins today.
The most beautiful cricket stadium of the country, nestled in small hillocks and tea gardens; started its journey with the matches of ICC T20 World Cup in 2014.
Since then, the ground hosted many domestic and international matches, including the matches of BPL in 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 seasons.
But the pandemic situation enforced Bangladesh Cricket Board to postpone the BPL in the 2020-21 season, and instead a franchise-based tournament named Bangabandhu T20 Cup with all local players was staged.
Due to the bio-security protocol, all the matches of the tournament took place in Dhaka.
As the situation improved, SICS will again see the top domestic and international cricketers in action across six matches in three days at Sylhet.
English all-rounder Moeen Ali’s in-laws went to the UK from the Sylhet region, which makes him the son-in-law of the locality. Moeen is playing for Comilla Victorians and he is very excited to play in Sylhet as his in-laws will be watching.
“Many of my family members have come here. My wife, his brother all are from this part of the world. They are now in Dhaka but soon they will be here in Sylhet,” Moeen told the reporters after the practice session in Sylhet.
Moeen was in scintillating form before coming to Bangladesh when he was playing for England against West Indies at the Caribbeans. So far, he has played only one match for Comilla where he was wicketless in his three overs for 27 runs and did not get a chance to bat.
The all-rounder played in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League almost a decade ago and came to Bangladesh a number of times but this is his first trip to Sylhet which makes him more excited,
“Bangladesh, Pakistan, or England; all are homes for me. Many of my in-laws live here, I respect them. They told me many times to visit Sylhet but I could not manage before. I am very happy to be here now. It’s frustrating that can’t go out but as my family is here, I am very happy,” Moeen said on Sunday.
Moeen also said that he is trying to learn some words from the local language as well,
“I know some words of Sylheti language, in the hotel local staff tried to talk to me in Sylheti. I wish I could know a bit more. Trying to learn,” said the English all-rounder.
The scenic beauty of SICS is breathtaking but recently the wickets are not producing as many runs as they used to, Moeen also thinks that spin bowling will be the key on this surface,
“Obviously spin will be the key, the ball will turn. I think for the surface and spin-friendly quality, the matches will be very competitive. The team which can do better as a batting unit has got higher chances of winning the match. But have to take care of things like making partnerships and so on. I don’t think matches will be very high-scoring. But it’s not a low scoring track either, I think mid-range scores we will be seeing,” he said.
