A highway accident forced the postponement of two Dhaka Premier League matches at the BKSP grounds in Savar on Tuesday, as all four teams were stuck in traffic for hours on the Dhaka-Aricha highway, according to tournament officials.
Both matches have been shifted to Wednesday, while the already scheduled matches on Wednesday will move to Thursday. The matches were between Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club and Legends of Rupganj at the BKSP-3 ground, and between Prime Bank Cricket Club and Partex Sporting Club at the BKSP-4 ground. They were supposed to start at 9am local time.
According to news reports, an oil lorry caught fire at 5.30am on Tuesday morning, after it turned upside down near the Hemayetpur bus stand on the Dhaka-Aricha highway. Four other trucks and a private car nearby also caught fire.
Savar’s fire service and civil defense station officer Mohammad Nurul Islam told the daily Prothom Alo that one person has died while eight others were hospitalised at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
The accident created a massive tailback in the area on both sides of the road. The four teams were trying to reach the Savar venues, some 25km away. Teams usually take the Dhaka-Aricha highway, taking the exit through the city’s Gabtoli area.
BKSP matches are often a headache for teams in the Dhaka leagues as it is 40km from the capital. Surjo Tarun Club and Cricket Coaching School (CCS) were summarily demoted from the Dhaka Premier League after they arrived late for their DPL matches in BKSP in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Mohammedan Sporting Club and Kalabagan Krira Chakra had also arrived late for a DPL match in 2018. By then, however, the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis, the BCB body that runs the leagues, added a clause in the tournament by-laws to avoid a similar incident.
The clause empowers the match referee to consider the matter. If a team informs the match referee of its reason for coming to the ground late and the match referee finds logic in it, he can start the game late, according to CCDM officials.
