Some twenty-five thousand spectators enjoyed the gala opening ceremony of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 from the galleries of Bangabandhu National Stadium, but nearly 50 national sports awardees missed the chance to watch the ceremony from those yesterday.
Of the total tickets, around 10,000 were sold for spectators through banks while rest of the tickets were distributed through Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the National Sports Council (NSC).
As many as 175 athletes and organisers have been honoured with the National Sports Award by the NSC since the award was introduced in 1976 and among them, 146 are still alive but the NSC provided only 75 invitation cards by names, said prominent athlete and organiser Kamrunnahar Dana, adding that the national sports awardees were not in the initial invitees lists' of the BCB.
"We gave the prime of our life to sports but we are now neglected persons though the government officials with joint-secretary status have been invited to the opening ceremony," complained Dana yesterday.
"Personally I feel all national sports awardees should have been given this honour, but it might be so that there has been some limitation in terms of seating arrangements," said BCB director and media chairman Jalal Yunus yesterday.