The plan for building a new stadium in Cox Bazar ahead of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2014 gathered further momentum when a high-level delegation visited the proposed site in the beach town on Saturday.

State minister for youth and sports Ahad Ali Sarkar led the delegation that also included parliamentary standing committee chairman on youth and sports ministry Zahid Hassan Russell, National Sports Council secretary Shafiq Anwar, Bangladesh Cricket Board director Dewan Shafiul Arefin and acting chief executive officer of the BCB Nizamuddin Chowdhury.

The delegation considered the pros and cons of setting up a stadium at the site adjacent to the golf course. The land currently belongs to the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation.

It is, however, still not clear if the government will build the stadium or the BCB will bear the cost to make it their exclusive venue. The NSC and the BCB had earlier drawn up separate plans for a stadium in Cox’s Bazar, a town where many facilities are already in place.

The BCB officials said they have already prepared a budget of Tk 178 crore for the stadium, which excludes the value of the land. Officials said that the BCB proposed to the tourism board to have a joint initiative, which would see the latter promote Beautiful Bangladesh campaign through this venture.

‘We are looking at all the options,’ acting BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told New Age over phone from Cox’s Bazar. ‘The main thing is to have a stadium here. We have visited the site today and it looks okay to us. Now the policymakers will decide on how we will progress.’

good to see BCB moving cricket out of Dhaka and Chittagong again,I really don't understand why they aren't hosting any at Bogra!