Mirpur stadium : A fair ground for cricket

Dhaka, May 9 (UNI) Enter Sher-e-Bangla Jatiya Stadium, the new holy grail of Bangladesh cricket, and you are immediately swept away by the enchanting sight of a village fair so typical of the culture here.

Situated on the outskirts of the city proper in Mirpur, Sher-e-Bangla is being used for cricket for the last two years.

Not much has changed from what it was a couple of years back. So in contrast to the glitzy glass facades of the super markets in the city, we have a fair ground here.

It seem like a revolution is in progress, with furniture shops to knick-knacks and petty whole-sellers sitting around with their fineries that range from 'lungis' to salwar-kameezes and then there are bangle sellers.

And one could not help remember the lines ''Bangle sellers are we who bear/ Our shinning loads to the temple fair/ Who will buy these delicate, bright/ Rainbow tinted circles of light?/Lustrous tokens of radiant lives/ for happy daughters and happy wives'' by Sarojini Naidu, as one saw women of all ages thronging them-- laughing, tingling and enjoying the sight and sound of the glass bangles even as they are bought in dozens.

The lower tyre of the stadium on the outside perhaps houses the biggest furniture market in the entire Dhaka city. Carpenters are busy sawing and shaping the wooden goodies, polishing them with oil and colour and setting up their shops.

The bamboo fencing for the people to enter the stadium for the first ODI between India and Bangladesh looks like an interruption to their lives and this buzzing market place called Sher-e-Bangla stadium.

The oriental charm is there alright, but a posse of Rapid Action Battalion and city cops means their world is disturbed. ''Now that the game has come here, the markets will be affected,'' said a furniture shop owner, after a face-off with one of the police.

The problem is that customers will not be allowed while the teams practice and this not going down well with the shopkeepers.

The look of the stadium itself is not charming to say the least, with heaps of garbage and unfinished work and bricks jeering out of unfinished constructions. But walk inside and you find the contrast.

A well manicured field, a fully equipped media room, newly painted galleries and the stadium with a capacity of around 30,000 is a beauty.

One of the BCB officials told UNI, ''The shops will all go. It was a good revenue source for us. But we will find something else.

''Before this, it was an all purpose stadium but now we are concentrating only on cricket here and plan to expand the National Cricket Academy here,'' he added.

Asked about the unfinished work, he said, ''Work is going around the year. We are preparing it for the opening ceremony of World Cup 2011.'' On what will happen to the shopkeepers and the 'bazaar' that sits pretty around the stadium, he smiled and said, ''They will go to some place new.'' With Bangladesh cricket team rewriting history every now and then, it seems the Mirpur market has to give place to the cricket fans, administrators and cricketers who are unwilling to share their pie with those earning a livelihood here.

UNI