Even if the opening ceremony of the 2011 World Cup Cricket takes place at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, football will not be disturbed.
The statement came from State Minister for Youth and Sports Ahad Ali Sarkar yesterday during his meeting with Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) high-ups.
"I had a reasonably good, satisfactory meeting with the sports minister at his office this afternoon," BFF president Kazi Salahuddin told The Daily Star last night.
The issue of the discussion was obviously the hottest one that has been gripping the sports arena since the sports minister and cricket officials' wish to stage the Cricket World Cup at the national number one stadium.
Salahuddin, who had not make a single comment on the issue for the past few days, said his federation would be glad to help the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in making the proposed opening ceremony a success.
But the country's football chief said he would not accept any long-term disturbance of football for this purpose.
"The sports minister has said nobody wants to disturb football," said Salahuddin, who was accompanied by his vice-presidents Abdus Salam Murshedi and Badal Roy.
"He said that football will not be disturbed because it is a nationally popular game as is cricket. He also added that the government wants to make sure that one game doesn't have to walk into other's territories.
"I think it is possible to work out a formula for the two games to co-exist on this issue," Salahuddin said quoting Ahad Ali.
"I also believe that the minister is right. If the preparations (for World Cup opening ceremony) do not take too long, there is no problem for us. We are willing to help the cricket board.
"I have told him what we need. Everyone has to understand that if the whole preparation stops football for more than one month, the damage would be irreparable for us. If it is one month, we can work out a plan to stop football for that small window.
"But if it goes over a month, the structure changes, the sponsor changes…the whole thing for us changes and it doesn't work at all. It will affect two generations of footballers and kill two seasons. It has already happened and we are in no condition to repeat that."
Salahuddin also informed that the minister has never said the decision to hold the opening ceremony at the BNS was final.
"He rather told us that he will sit with all concerned parties within a couple of days to find out a formula that works."
When asked whether everything was happening only because of the name of the Father of the Nation, Salahuddin replied: "Bangabandhu belongs to all of us. There is no controversy about that."
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