The National Sports Council has allocated the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium for 15 years to the Bangladesh Cricket Board for exclusive use. General Moeen U Ahmed, the chairman of the NSC, made the announcement while laying the foundation stone of the GP-BCB National Cricket Academy.

The NSC chairman vowed to remove all the shops from the stadium in a bid to keep the sporting environment at the premier cricket venue in the country. He also promised to allow the BCB to use the adjacent areas of the stadium.

‘We have decided to withdraw all the shops from the stadium. And all the places around the stadium will be handed over to the BCB, because we all want to see quality improvement in our cricket,’ he said.

The BCB officials said they wanted to have exclusive rights of the stadium for 30 years, but the NSC rejected the proposal as it had leased the land from government for the same period in the late 1980s.

‘We have only 18 leasing years left as football used the venue for more than a decade, so it was not possible to agree with BCB’s proposal,’ said an NSC official. The 15-year term will be effective from 2006.

Shafiqur Rahman, the chairman grounds and facilities committee of the BCB, said they are now happy with the NSC decision and will try take maximum advantage of it.

Apart from building a house for the Academy, the BCB will also improve the standard of the Krira Palli, a dormitory within the stadium complex, for its use, said officials.

Grameenphone will provide $750,000 for the construction of the Academy building and meet its operational costs for a period of five years effective from April 2007. The rest of the amount will come from the BCB’s own coffers.

‘It has been stated that the construction of the Academy will be completed within 12 months. We all are looking forward to this,’ said General Moeen in his speech adding that he will extend all cooperation to improve the standard of the game in Bangladesh.

‘We would like to see our cricketers win both at home and abroad. We don’t like to see their depressed faces when they return home after playing an away series. We want to see them smiling,’ he said.

BCB president Major General Sina Ibn Jamali and the Grameenphone CEO Andres Jensen were also present at the foundation laying ceremony.