Let the Cup begin - Dhaka's World spectacular starts today (24 October 1998)
The biggest cricket event after the World Cup, the much awaited Wills International Cup, begins at the new-look Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka Saturday amidst great enthusiasm of the cricket lovers
24-Oct-1998
24 October 1998
Let the Cup begin - Dhaka's World spectacular starts today
by Zahid Newaz in Dhaka
The biggest cricket event after the World Cup, the much awaited Wills
International Cup, begins at the new-look Bangabandhu National Stadium
in Dhaka Saturday amidst great enthusiasm of the cricket lovers.
Two lowly teams of the nine elite - New Zealand and Zimbabwe - will
play the inaugural match, the only pre-quarter final of the nine-day
tourney, starting at 2 pm.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the one-off knock out
championship at 1.50 pm by releasing 11 pigeons and 11 balloons at the
40,000 crowd capacity stadium. Soon after the inauguration, she will
be introduced to the two participating teams of the opening match.
All the eight day-night matches will start at 2 pm and conclude at
9.45 pm with a break of 45 minutes from 5.30 pm.
Nine test playing countries - Sri Lanka, Australia, India, Pakistan,
England, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand and Zimbabwe - will
compete in the fund raising tournament of ICC to be concluded on
November 1. Of them, five teams - world champions Sri Lanka, South
Africa, England, Zimbabwe and New Zealand -- are already in the
capital to participate in the gala event.
Two former world champions, India and West Indies teams, will arrive
in Dhaka on October 25 along with a six-member partial squad of
Australia. Another former world champions, Pakistan, will be the last
team to reach Dhaka on October 27 with the remaining Australian
players.
The Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA) has taken special
measures to continue the electricity supply uninterrupted during the
matches in the city. Tight security measures have already been
enforced in the capital specially in around the stadium and hotels.
Some 3,000 members of Army, Armed Police Battalion, Special Branch,
NSI and private security force Group-4, will be guarding the capital
until the cricket carnival ends.
Nearly 37,000 tickets including 30,000 for the gallery will be
released in each match. Most of the tickets have already been sold
from bank counters. Bangabandu National Stadium in Dhaka is now
wearing a new look with beautiful decoration and its adjoining areas
are in festive mood.
The "trophy" of the Wills International Cup Cricket, which reached the
capital on Wednesday from India, was officially unveiled and handed
over to Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Saber Hossain
Chowdhury by ICC President Jagmohan Dalmiya at a simple ceremony on
Friday.
Meanwhile, four match referees and five international cricket umpires
are already in the capital to conduct the Wills International Cup
Cricket.
The four match referees for the tournament are Raman Subba Row
(England), Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka) and Ibrahim Isaac (South
Africa) and Gundappa Vishanath of India.
Five umpires are : David Shepherd, Peter Willey (England), Srinivas
Venkataraghavan (India) and Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Steve
Dunne (New Zealand). Another South African umpire, Dave Orchard, now
conducting the third Pakistan-Australia test match, will reach Dhaka
on October 27 along with Pakistan team.
Bucknor and Willey will conduct today's match between New Zealand and
Zimbabwe. Subba Row will be the match referee while Shepherd will be
the TV umpire in the match.
Source :: CricInfo365