Yesterday, the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) saw a massive influx of people as the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) allowed fans to witness the Bangladesh-Nepal friendly — the first international friendly at the venue in close to 10 months — from the stands.
While BFF’s bold gesture amid coronavirus pandemic helped football-starved fans of the nation catch a match live after a long time, another major sporting body of the country, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), said they currently do not have any plans to allow fans in the stadium for upcoming events.
“We have no plans at the moment to let fans enter the stadium. But we will discuss this. We need to check if there is any health risk to it. It does not depend on us as we need to consider the overall situation. We need to think of the consequences,” said BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury when asked if BCB plans to have a crowd inside the stadium.
BCB arranged a three-team 50-over tournament — a test-case from the BCB’s point of view — last month by creating a bio-bubble. The sporting body is also set to arrange another five-team T20 tournament in the same manner inside closed doors at the latter part of this month.
“Public health is a priority for us. We can not put that at risk. It is a good thing that BFF has taken the initiative. But we need to consider the next steps too. If we let people in, then the stadium might be jam-packed as everyone will get to enjoy a live cricket match after a long time. If we want, we can do it. But we need to consider if we are endangering public health by letting people in,” added Nizamuddin.
