Lateef Jafri: Selection of Dhaka as mini World Cup venue (9 Feb 1998)

Monday, 9 February, 1998

Selection of Dhaka as mini World Cup venue

By Lateef Jafri

In a significant move the new President of the International Cricket Council, Jagmohan Dalmiya, former Secretary of the Indian Cricket Board, announced from Calcutta recently the shifting of the venue of the limited-overs knockout tournament involving all the nine Testplaying countries. The centre of what is virtually a mini-World Cup will be Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, and not the popular Gulf centre of Sharjah.

Dalmiya said there were marketing and sponsorship problems in the desert sheikhdom of Sharjah, the original venue decided by the ICC. As such Dhaka was chosen out of two other cities - Disneyland in Florida and Toronto, Canada.

Cricket fans in Pakistan cannot but welcome the change in the venue of the new cricket fiesta some months before the World Cup scheduled to be held in 1999 in England, though some matches will be staged in the Netherlands (Amstelveen), Scotland (Edinburgh) and Ireland as well. Dhaka, where the two South Asian countries, India and Pakistan, delighted the Bangladesh fans with their thrilling stroke-play in the recently-concluded Silver Jubilee Independence Cup will give the chance to the ICC to implement its development programme.

Dalmiya, a dynamic cricket official, has taken considerable risk in making this major decision for Sharjah had all the facilities for foreign teams. Besides, Sharjah has now the added attraction of a flood-lit stadium for day-and-night fixtures. But the contests are fund-raising for the proliferation of cricket in areas where other games are popular. The limitations placed on sponsorship in Sharjah would not have served ICC's purpose. No doubt the yearly cricket competitions in the Gulf are profit-earning but the money is invested for the advancement of their own cricket. Besides funds are available to monetarily help veteran and famed players of yore. The Sharjah tournaments are organised under the aegis of Cricketers Benefit Fund, which has a full setup. The earnings from the matches are also pocketed by the Sharjah establishment, being run by Abdur Rahman Bukhatir. The whole ICC plan would have fallen through; the income from the knockout fixtures would have been shared with Bukhatir's organisation. The multinational bookies, for which Sharjah is notorious, would also have spoiled the show, kicked up new controversies and would have implicated leading cricketing figures in the betting game, as all-rounder Wasim Akram is being accused of without any proper evidence.

Dalmiya, now based at Lord's heading the ICC structure, took a safe course and allotted the yearend cricketing extravaganza to Dhaka. The venue switch-over by the ICC, on the advice of its development committee chairman, Dr Ali Bacher, the South African cricket supremo, may attain a dual purpose, according to Lord's officials: (1) cricket activities would enhance manifold in a country where football is supposed to be the national game and is being played in every nook and corner of that country; (2) the ICC will get the required funds for introducing the game and expanding it in such areas as South America, where soccer, tennis and basketball get priority over other recreational disciplines and South-east and North Asia, where football, racket games, athletics and boxing are taken up more seriously and with more interest than such sport as cricket which is played for a whole day or much of the night. While seeing that eighta-side and six-a-side contests are day by day getting popular in such cities as Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok the ICC has to step in to rationalize the game's activities in such zones, though many countries for the time being are affiliate members of the game's international body headquartered at Lord's and which participated in the ICC Trophy competition staged in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) last April.

The game, according to the ICC's own programme, decided at the annual get-together at Lord's in July, has to be pushed up in Austria, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland in the European zone, all having affiliate membership of the ICC but showing little progression in cricket. Similarly, Argentina, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico and Brazil in the American area have to expand the game's competitive activities.

Kerry Packer tried hard to break the barriers in cricket in the seventies. He may have taken the game to the Americas with the help of his TV channels and made the game popular there, having signed most of the world's top players and initiated night-and-day one-day tournament with coloured kits and white balls. He was baulked in his efforts. But why should the ICC fail in its planning?

In such out-of-bound areas for willow-wielders the chroniclers point out that the USA and Canada had started battles as long ago as 1844 - or according to some 1834 - over 30 years before the Test tussles opened in Melbourne with Charlie Bannerman showing a vigorous yet skilful bat to hammer the first century in a representative match, Toronto crowds went into an ecstasy of excitement seeing the massive figure of Dr W.G. Grace bestriding their field far away from the main city. Later, in modern times, Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Leonard Hutton, Freddie Trueman and Sir Garfield Sobers have been at the sanctified place visited by the Golden Age Colossus.

Sir Pelham Warner of England took a team to America, which played matches in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Belmont in the early of the 20th century. Another English squad made its voyage to Canada, exhibiting its wizardry in batting and bowling in Montreal and Toronto.

It goes without saying that now that cricket has found its roots in Bangladesh and their players having clinched the ICC Trophy for qualifying to the next World Cup there will be diversion from football, tennis and athletics. In April of last year when Bangladesh had toppled Kenya in the final of the ICC Trophy the crowds exploded with delight. Prime Minister Hasina Wajed showered praise on the winning team, gave cash prizes to the players and promised to build another stadium, separately and exclusively for cricket. She expects considerable boost to cricket activities as the crowds packed the Dhaka Stadium to the full to watch and enjoy the tri-nation Independents Cup matches.

Dhaka now has a grass pitch. Only the lights at the impressive Dhaka Stadium are to be improved and expanded for a global tournament involving the full members of the ICC. Certainly there should not be any problem with lights as happened during the third final of the Silver Jubilee competition. Now that the country is hosting important international conferences one expects no lodging and boarding problems for the cricket gathering late this year.

The mini World Cup will have a festive atmosphere in Bangladesh but it is surprising how the ICC has made a deviation from its own decision. In last July's meeting it had granted Bangladesh and Kenya special one-day status. Both the countries should have been invited to the competition and added to the list of participants in the knockout one-day international.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)