Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium or Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNS) is a cricket ground in the Mirpur Thana district of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It holds 36,000 people and was built in 2006. At first, it was named "Mirpur Stadium", but the Bangladeshi government later renamed it as "Shere-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium."The Shere Bangla National Cricket Stadium, named after AK Fazlul Haque, one of the country's most renowned leaders and freedom fighters in the 1940s, is situated about 10 kilometres outside the centre of Dhaka. The move from the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka to Mirpur was met with much resistance, but the BCB had decided they needed a stadium dedicated exclusively to cricket, and carried on despite criticism.
The ground is one of the most well equipped and has world class facilities. It is considered one of the best grounds in the subcontinent. The most striking feature of the ground is the drainage facility which is probably the best in the subcontinent. The ground was originally built for football and athletics and was hence rectangular in shape. To bring it back to a shape suited for cricket, a lot of demolition had to be done, and also the athletics tracks had to be dug up. About three feet of soil was excavated to remove all the red clay. PVC pipes were fit in before filling it up with rock chips and sand and then grass. The slope is nice and even, a difference of 29 inches from the wicket to the boundary.
The ground hosted its first Test when Bangladesh played India in May 2007; a timely start was made possible because of the efficient drainage after heavy overnight showers. The wicket was pretty flat and slow. The stadium is being renovated ahead of the 2011 ICC world cup.
This stadium is one of the venues of the ICC World Cup 2011, which is hosted jointly by Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. And for the World Cup, the stadium has undergone radical renovations. A giant screen and an electronic scoreboard has been installed, the traditional sightscreens have been replaced with electronic ones, the flood lights have been improved, a Hover-Cover has been bought from the UK for about $16,000, plastic seats have been installed for the whole ground, a new media center has been built which accommodates about 200 journalists and the dressing rooms have also been given a makeover. Also adjacent to the main ground, a new Cricket Academy has been formed and with it came a whole new training ground, adding to the already existing indoor training facility.
