Imperfect but joyful

Before the start of the FIFA friendly match between hosts Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the new-look Sheikh Kamal Stadium bore a festive look as spectators young and old turned out in joyful  droves to make the the event a memorable one for Nilphamari.

The capactiy crowd of 20,000 however had to leave the venue with broken hearts after the home side suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to the visiting Sri Lanka.

The enthusiastic fans -- who apart from Nilphamari natives consisted of visitors from Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur and Panchagarh -- came a long way to queue at the entrance of the stadium from the morning and the organisers were forced to open the gates at 12:00pm, four hours before the start of the match. A remarkable number of female spectators also came to watch the match. 

With 13,000 of the 20,000 tickets sold on the first day of sales on Sunday, it was expected that the Sheikh Kamal Stadium would be a full house, and that is what transpired. There was no space left inside the gallery -- spectators watched the match standing in front of the fence, obstructing the view of some of the seated spectators. However, there was no unpleasant incident because of this inconvenience.

Many enthusiastic spectators bought tickets from the illegal scalpers, spending four to five times the original ticket price, while a couple of thousand spectators failed to enter the packed gallery and were seen standing outside the stadium.

“Three other traders and myself came to enjoy the match because it is the biggest event in Rangpur division, but only two of us could manage tickets at Tk 500 per ticket,” said Amzad Hossain, a trader of Paker Hatbazaar in Khansama upazila of Dinajpur, before entering the stadium.

“It was an exciting match where Bangladesh dominated throughout 90 minutes but could not score because they lacked the cutting edge and lost to Sri Lanka. But I am happy to watch this match in such an environment,” said schoolteacher Ramash Barman of Sadar Upazila.