SICS - Picturesque stadium, great result, tickets priced reasonably, fans still lacking

Pictures of how beautiful the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium looks have once again been going viral on social media.

Nestled away from the city and with tea gardens surrounding the stadium, it is easily the best-looking stadium in the country.

But despite that, one thing that was a constant was the lack of fans at the stadium.

The first three days had over 90 percent of the stands empty and only on Friday did people show up, perhaps as it was the weekend.

Even then, it was around 20 percent full as Bangladesh took the ascendancy in the first Test.

We spoke to fans about the lack of people going to the match and also tried to find out what was the best value for money deal if you go to watch a game at the stadium.

Tashin Chowdhury, a banker, said that people simply don't find the time to go watch Tests, especially during weekdays.

Photo: Shahnoor Rabbani

"We have schools and offices open on weekdays from 9 pm to 5 pm mostly and that's when the Test matches happen. You'd have seen more people had the matches been on weekends and after 5 pm," he said.

Tahajjud Islam, a university student, spoke about there not being enough people interested in the game as Shakib Al Hasan or Tamim Iqbal weren't in the team and people lost interest after Bangladesh performed poorly in the World Cup.

"Had Shakib bhai or Tamim bhai played, I'm sure a lot of their fans would have come to the stadium. Also, since people were disappointed after Bangladesh won only two games in the World Cup, I guess people didn't want to come." 

Pollob Roy who is a school student said that a lot of people were not aware that the Test was happening in Sylhet.

"There wasn't much hype in social media about this Test match happening in Sylhet. It was only once the match started that a lot of us saw on TV that the game is happening here so we came on our weekend."  

Ibrahim Ahmed, who is a local businessman, had a different take and felt people simply aren't interested in watching Test cricket.

Photo: Shahnoor Rabbani

"You'll see around the world that in most places, the venues are mostly empty. It's the case when Tests happen in Dhaka or in Chattogram too. This is only the second Test match here in Sylhet, and you see that there aren't enough people turning up. It's not in our culture to watch and enjoy Test cricket yet." 

Sonny Shaw, a lifelong New Zealand sports fan, who has been touring different countries with the New Zealand cricket team since 1969 also echoed that statement.

"We don't have too many people turning up to Test matches in New Zealand or in most other places around the world in fact."

Value for money
The Sylhet stadium is the only one that has a grass bank and the tickets for the grass bank are 100 taka only. 

Despite the low price, the banks were mostly empty.

Beside the grass banks is the East gallery and tickets for that was also 100 taka.

Speaking with a fan there, Numan Islam Rimon, he said that going to the stadium, food and tickets, you don't need to spend more than 500 taka to have an enjoyable day.

"I came on day four and five and it was totally worth seeing Bangladesh getting a historic Test win over New Zealand."

The view there is side-on but you can see most of the action from a pretty close vicinity. 

The VIP box tickets though cost 1000 taka and what's better is perhaps a more straight-on view of the action and AC rooms and it did get hot on the last three days.

But overall, we wouldn't recommend that if you're on a tighter budget.

Photo: Shahnoor Rabbani

The best deal is without a doubt the clubhouse tickets which cost 150 taka, and for 50 taka more than the East gallery tickets, you get a shade on top, which helps massively. 

If you're coming to the Sylhet stadium for the first time, those are the seats to get if you want value for money.

It's important to note that prices of tickets do vary in other formats and from series to series.

At the end of the day though, such a picturesque ground with reasonably priced tickets needed more fans to witness such a monumental win in Bangladesh cricket history.