[Nadim]

Chittagong divisional stadium
not ready yet

With Zimbabwe already in city and World Cup cricket just 72 days away, the construction works at the Chittagong divisional stadium are nowhere near to completion.
Officials are hopeful that the venue will be ready by December 11 when an ICC inspection is due, but a quick look at the stadium on Wednesday suggested something otherwise.
The media centre and the players’ dressing room are completely finished including the sight screens and the giant scoreboard and the floodlights are fully functional, according to the venue chairman of Chittagong, Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir, also a BCB director.
‘We are working as per the checklist that the ICC inspection committee had given us and we are nearly finished with the checklist, and we are confident that the things they will be looking for will be completely finished,’ said the BCB director.
However, the condition of the stadium still raises some questions and the biggest eye-sore is the
unfinished eastern gallery which starts from the left side of the media centre and stretches right up to the corner of the VIP stand, the workers are still laying concrete to finish the construction of the first tier as the second tier is being prepared for the concrete foundation.
After the construction of the eastern section and when they finish installing all the seats, the stadium itself will probably have a little more than 18,000-capacity, further reducing the number of cricket loving fans.
The grass on the outfield looks to be dried out, because of soil salinity, the BCB is partnering with WASA and the local Fire Service to water the stadium with fresh sweet water. The WASA is spraying water by a few trucks a day as the Fire Service pumping in from a nearby pond.
‘It is not the water we use which is the problem, it is when they laid the soil in the stadium they have probably used soil which had salt in it, now it does not matter how much water you pour in, the grass usually dies up in a few days,’ he added.
The metal dome-shape shade on top of the Grand Stand has been installed backwards and no action had been taken to fix that issue yet, and the debris from the construction is visible all around the stadium.
The construction of road has started around the venue and leading up to the stadium to make it wider and visually appealing to the public which is overseen by the CDA.
Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir is still hopeful that even though the stadium might look as if was not ready, but it will be ready ahead of the World Cup.
Talks have started as the third ODI against Zimbabwe which was supposed to be held under floodlights but that could not be as the intensity of illumination did not meet the ICC standard. And since the floodlights at the Chittagong divisional stadium are fully functional and met the ICC standard, so one of the two matches, preferably the last ODI, could be a day-night game.

Source: NewageBD.com....from 9th Dec.