BCB completes first Curator Level-1 course, opens new path for local ground staff

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has completed the country's first Curator Level-1 course, marking a significant step towards building a stronger pool of locally trained cricket ground professionals.

The Dhaka phase of the programme concluded on Monday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, where certificates were handed over to participants at a closing ceremony.

The two-day Dhaka workshop brought together 40 ground staff from venues and cricket facilities in Dhaka, BKSP, Sylhet, Khulna, Barishal, Bogra and Rajshahi. It followed an earlier phase in Chattogram involving another 30 participants, taking the total number covered by the programme to 70.

The course was conducted under the BCB Grounds Committee, with Tony Hemming, Head of Turf Management and an ICC-accredited curator, serving as the educator.

Rather than treating pitch preparation simply as a practical job, the programme was designed to introduce ground staff to a more structured approach to wicket preparation and turf management. Soil characteristics, moisture, grass, rolling, preparation methods and the way a surface develops during a match were among the areas covered.

For Bangladesh, the larger objective extends beyond the distribution of certificates.

The board wants its ground staff to develop the knowledge and confidence required to prepare consistent playing surfaces across different venues and conditions. That could become increasingly important as Bangladesh expands its cricket infrastructure and hosts more domestic and international matches.

Hemming has previously stressed that completing a course alone does not turn an experienced ground worker into a fully developed curator. The real development, he believes, comes through practical work, making decisions on wickets and learning from the results.

That makes the latest programme less of a finishing line and more of a starting point.

The long-term ambition is to create Bangladeshi curators capable of understanding the country's own climate, soils and playing conditions without depending indefinitely on overseas expertise.

The programme also represents an attempt to create greater consistency across Bangladesh's cricket grounds. A wider pool of trained personnel could eventually help the BCB maintain similar professional standards at venues around the country.

For the participants receiving their certificates in Mirpur, therefore, the ceremony marked more than the completion of a two-day workshop.

It was the first formal step in what the BCB hopes will become a sustained professional pathway for the people responsible for preparing the pitches on which Bangladesh's cricket is played.