Can hybrid wickets solve Mirpur conundrum?

The conversation around the Mirpur wickets has been a long-standing issue in Bangladesh cricket.

A generation of players have had to curate their game to the low and slow tracks usually on offer, impeding growth across formats. Players such as Litton Das and Nazmul Hossain Shanto had been vocal in their demands for decent playing surfaces, but in Bangladesh cricket, talks of sporting wickets being equated to the production of quality cricketers have hardly ever been discussed seriously.

Over the last six months, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul has also heard the pleas of several national team stars who talked about not just match wickets but bad practice wickets.

Mirpur, however, has been a precarious challenge. With 218 matches since the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium's inception in 2006, the venue is sixth in the list of the most international matches in a single stadium. Four out of the five venues in the top five are over a hundred years old, giving an impression of the high frequency of matches and why tired wickets became a Mirpur issue.

Soil inconsistencies have often prevented proper preparation of wickets, according to BCB sources.

This is where the conversation around hybrid wickets has come in. The wickets are easier to maintain and more durable, known for having quicker recovery time and, as per sources, easier to install as well. The benefits are that natural grass is still in play. The process involves intertwining fibres with natural grass. Most importantly, it produces consistent bounce.

The BCB boss also confirmed that the discussion around hybrid wickets has come up. "The cost has come up as one of the issues," Bulbul told The Daily Star.

"Since labour cost is lesser here, we have to decide whether we will bring hybrid wickets at that cost," he added, noting a hybrid pitch costs around 30,000 AUD. The BCB boss felt that instead of buying at high costs, sending curators abroad to learn the technology would help the board implement such wickets here if and when purchase of required materials take place. In Tony Hemming, BCB has someone well adept at building these wickets.

The board plans to dismantle the greenhouse facilities at Mirpur, as those wickets were unused. With more pitches needed, hybrids are an option. The ICC has approved them for T20Is and ODIs, while the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) trialled hybrids for a year in the County Championship.

But all is not rosy when discussion comes to adaptability. Last year, a Gloucestershire vs Northamptonshire county match was abandoned owing to safety concerns for batters on a hybrid wicket. BCB officials say hybrids could be trialled on a "test case basis" to see if reliability outweighs costs, as "what the wickets will be like in our conditions is still unknown".

For now, the main question is whether hybrid wickets can solve the Mirpur conundrum. With batters complaining about practice turfs, it may be the answer, depending on adaptability to Bangladesh's conditions.