It took five days for the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to act. Five days of barren stands – would have been six had the first Test between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe gone beyond the fourth day.

By the time the BCB finally read the room – deciding to open the gates to schoolchildren starting from Day 2 of the second Test in Chattogram – the galleries in Sylhet and now in Chattogram echoed like ghost towns.

"From the second day of the second Test between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, school students will be allowed free entry to the Birshreshtha Shaheed Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Cricket Stadium in Chattogram," read Monday's BCB press release.

There are simple conditions to avail of the free-entry offer. Students must wear their school uniforms and carry a valid school ID.

Why sit on a trivial solution?

It is not that the low turnout came as a surprise. The signs were there even before ball one of the two-match series, which began on April 20, a Sunday — the first weekday in this part of the world — and lacking the pull of star names capable of drawing crowds. 

Ticket counters stood idle. Locals shrugged with indifference, while rain loomed large at this time of year.

However, inviting school kids, tapping into sports academies, even basic promotion — none of it happened when it could have made a real difference.

The broadcast mess only added salt to the wound. With no media rights secured, the series was on the verge of becoming an invisible event until rescued late by the state-run BTV.

And Test cricket – already a hard sell in today's fast-paced world which favours 20-over cricket – felt even more forgotten.

Nevertheless, however delayed and reactionary the move might seem, inviting schoolchildren to watch an international event remains a decent gesture.

At least the kids who do show up on Tuesday have a day of cricket to look forward to, with the visitors resuming their first innings on 227 for nine.

Taijul Islam, having spun his way to five wickets on Day 1, will be hunting for his eighth six-wicket haul – not something one gets to see every day in this format.

Bangladesh's batters, stepping onto a fresh wicket, will look to pile on the runs. Among them is Mushfiqur Rahim – experiencing a lean patch at the twilight of his career – who has the calibre to stitch together another old-school Test innings to savour.

And will Anamul Haque Bijoy translate his mountains of domestic runs on return to the Test team, realising that the window of opportunity is usually smaller than it appears?

For many of the school-goers, this could be their first live taste of Test cricket – a format that demands patience, guile, and heart. If nothing else, the day might light sparks that no marketing campaign ever could.

Hopefully, though, the port city skies stay kind.