On a crisp winter afternoon, the kind that Bangladeshis pine for throughout the year, a veteran and a newbie put on a fireworks display at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. It was January 31, 2005, the day of the last international cricket match at the iconic venue. Mohammad Rafique, who would go on to become the first bowler from Bangladesh to take 100 Test wickets, was also an entertaining big-hitter.
Promoted to open the batting with the ODI series in line against Zimbabwe, Rafique swung his bat merrily and connected the cricket ball sweetly. At the other end was Aftab Ahmed, the admittedly lazy Chittagonian, whose famous six just five months later would script Bangladesh's miraculous win over mighty Australia. On this day, Aftab opened up all his wares -- the cuts, the drives, the flicks, the swishes.
The full-house Bangabandhu National Stadium was in their thrall. Many also knew that this was cricket's swansong at the venue, so the emotions were running high. Only a few months ago, the National Sports Council, the custodian of all sporting bodies in Bangladesh, took the final decision that Bangladesh Cricket Board had to exit the stadium.
You are probably wondering what all this has got to do with football. The Bangabandhu National Stadium was actually a football ground with an athleatic track around it, often hosting bad-blooded matches of the once-famous Dhaka League at the peak of football in the country from the 1970s to the 1990s.
At the time, losing the stadium was a bitter blow for cricket, putting an already disappointing period into more uncertainty.
And cricket's loss was football's gain.
When the National Sports Council handed the reins of the Bangabandhu National Stadium to the Bangladesh Football Federation, they rejoiced at the decision, as it ended decades of tug-of-war, which had become stringent since BCB gained the Test status in 2000. The national football team was ranked around the bottom of world football at the time despite their 2003 SAFF Championship win on home soil, but getting the stadium was a major victory. Now, something might happen in football, many hoped.
Within the next two years, however, the BCB had its own plush headquarters up and running in Mirpur. Their dream of making Shere Bangla National Stadium the “home of cricket” was fulfilled quickly as they had their national cricket academy up and running within the stadium premises.
