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impress Lloyd

Lenin Gani
Clive Lloyd painted a positive picture on Bangladesh’s prospects of getting some new Test venues in the near future.
The former West Indies captain addressed the media at a city hotel yesterday after winding up a six-day inspection of four venues selected by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for approval by the International Cricket Council.
Lloyd visited the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Fatullah Cricket Stadium in Narayanganj, Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra and Khulna Divisional Stadium.
The 60-year-old, who made his debut as an ICC match referee in both forms of the game in 1992, appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts to bring top quality cricket to all parts of the country.
"I realise the importance cricket board is giving to bring Test cricket to other areas of Bangladesh. I think that is a pretty good move because if the venues I’ve seen are approved by the ICC, then everybody can watch Test matches in all parts of the country. Obviously, Bangladesh have a huge cricket-loving public that backs their team even though they are not doing extremely well at the moment. But once the team performs in both Test and one-day arenas then it augurs well for Bangladesh cricket.
"I’m impressed with the amount of work done since my last visit a few years ago. Tilings are improving and I hope it continues to improve. I’m sure the ICC will do its utmost to make sure cricket in Bangladesh takes a step forward. ”
Concerning the four venues, Lloyd sounded satisfied.
"It was obvious they all looked impressive. But like all places some adjustments will have to be made.
It's not fair for me to say which venue impressed me most but the one in Bogra is a pretty new stadium and also it looks nice and compact I suppose the others are pretty old that's why Bogra stands out." When asked if any of the venues could host an international match by next year, Lloyd, a match referee in 38Tests and 100 one-day internationals, however declined to speculate.
"I don’t know. It all depends if the venues are first passed by the ICC then they will have to look at their calendar. They just can't give you a one-day game or a Test. It all depends on whether a venue can support it as well."
On the subject of pitches, he said it was important that the ICC saw matches at theselected stadia.
"Although I did not see any matches played at those venues, some of them I heard have a lot of pitches. One of them has eleven while the others have five. But it is difficult to actually say which wickets were good or bad since as I said before I did not get the chance to see any matches played there."
Lloyd tried to explain that the procedure for a venue to get Test status was actually quite simple.
"Well, I'll just make my report in the next couple of days then a week or so later the ICC will make its decision. But they might also want see certain things built or games played at the venue(s). Because that is important a venue cannot be passed without an acceptable pitch to play on."
He also touched on the current state of Bangladesh and in particular the domestic structure in place. He pointed to India and Pakistan as a model.
"I think somebody wrote in a paper this morning something about improving domestic cricket. I would probably like to go a Little further. You are very close to Pakistan and India so trying to get involved in their domestic cricket is another way of cranking up Bangladesh's cricket. If you have two great nations playing cricket of the highest quality you would want to get involved with them. Then it would help to enhance the standard of play here. But at the same time you must have a better system of domestic cricket because that's where players will be coming from."
The father figure of West Indies cricket however did not wish to get involved in a proposed two-tier system for countries like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
”1 don't know about any two-tier system. The point is that there are 10 Test playing nations and they should be playing each other. It’s up to the Boards and the ICC to work together and make sure cricket is up to speed here and in Zimbabwe."
The briefing was attended by BCB chief executive Macky Dudhia and media committee chairman Reazuddin Al Mamun.