Gosh spins U-19s to T20 victory

Left-arm spinner Taposh Gosh led the Bangladesh Under-19 team to a 34-run victory in their first ever Twenty20 match with a six-wicket haul over the Malaysian national side in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
Batting first, the Bangladesh finished their stipulated overs on 128-8 with Arif scoring highest 51. Rony and Himel scored 28 and 19 respectively.
Tapash, also the vice-captain of the side, returned with 6-10 to dismiss Malaysia for 94 in 19 overs. Rony displayed an all-round performance taking three wickets for 26 runs

Mirpur all in all in 2011 WC

All six matches of Bangladesh and the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup will be held at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, revealed the Bangladesh Cricket Board at an inter-ministerial meeting on Monday.
‘The Sher-e-Bangla Stadium is the only venue proposed for the opening ceremony and the official World Cup matches. The Bangabandhu National Stadium and Fatullah Stadium have been proposed only as alternative venues,’ said BCB chief executive officer Mahmudur Rahman after the meeting.
It was the first such meeting in Bangladesh about the 2011 mega event, which India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also co-host. India will host 22 matches of the competition including the final while Pakistan and Sri Lanka will stage 16 and nine matches respectively.
Representative from the home, civil aviation and tourism, health, LGRD, finance, post and telecommunications, commerce, foreign, sports and information ministries attended the meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
‘We have only three years left to host the World Cup. But there are numerous issues yet to be settled. They all were discussed in the meeting,’ said Rahman, one of the three BCB officials to have attended it.
‘We have estimated around 1200 beds of five-star hotels will be needed during the World Cup for players, officials, ICC officials and television crews. If we add the spectators who are expected to come here during the tournament, the number will be much higher,’ said Rahman.
‘So accommodation of all these people demands serious attention. We also have to ensure hassle-free visas for the players, officials, spectators and journalists. Both issues were discussed at the meeting,’ said the official.
‘The home ministry has planed to make a safety and security plan for the officials and players and also decided to give them on-arrival visas,’ a statement from the ministry of sports said later.
Bangladesh will take initiative to introduce a SAARC visa so that relevant players, officials, journalists, television crews and fans can travel without trouble to all four co-hosts, the statement confirmed.
The National Board of Revenue will ensure import of television cameras, cables, food and beverage, prize money and the remuneration of ICC officials. Bangladesh Bank will ensure the smooth transfer of foreign currencies.
The ministry of commerce will monitor the legal side against ambush marketing, trade mark and intellectual property rights, decided the meeting.
The meeting also decided to take an extensive programme of tourism to promote Bangladesh during the tournament. Special tour packages will be offered to the overseas travellers while Dhaka city will decorated in a special way, said the official.

U-19s bounce back

The Bangladesh under-19 team bounced back from their stunning defeat to Malaysia in the previous match when they outclassed the hosts by eight wickets in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Bangladesh had restricted Malaysia to 108-8 in 35.2 overs before rain intervened in the game. Rubel took highest four wickets while Subhashish claimed three wickets.
Bangladesh were given a revised target of 102 in 35 overs, but they needed only 15 overs to achieve it. Mithun was unbeaten on 41.
With the win Bangladesh took a 2-1 lead in the series. They had won the first match by 10 wickets before Malaysia levelled the series with a three-wicket win in the second.
The visitors are scheduled to play a Tewenty20 match against Malaysia national side on Tuesday

Dhoni set to lead India in T20 WC

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is almost certain to be named India’s captain when the selectors meet today pick the squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championships in September.
The hard-hitting batsman and wicket-keeper is the preferred choice of the selectors after regular captain Rahul Dravid and senior pros Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly opted out of the tournament.
Dhoni, 26, is Dravid’s deputy in one-day cricket and is regarded as one of the most exciting batsmen in the game with a penchant for hitting sixes.
Aggressive opener Virender Sehwag, left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who were axed for the ongoing tour of England, are also set to make the 15-man squad.
India, who initially opposed the game’s new format that has proved popular with audiences worldwide, have played just one Twenty20 international so far, against South Africa in Johannesburg last December.

BCB to dig into U-19s’ Malaysia debacle

The Bangladesh Cricket Board will seek an explanation from the management of the Under-19 team after the humiliating
defeat against Malaysia in a recent one-day match, said a top official.
Malaysia, an associate member of the ICC with little credentials in the game, stunned Bangladesh by three wickets on Friday, a day after they conceded a 10-wicket defeat.
The humiliation may have gone unnoticed by most of the Bangladesh media, but not the new officials of the BCB, who have taken over barely a week ago.
‘I talked to coach Fahim (Nazmul Abedin) over phone immediately after I heard the result and wanted to know what went wrong in the match. We are taking it very seriously,’ said Gazi Ashraf Hossain, the newly-appointed chairman of the cricket operations committee.
‘We will seek an explanation from the team management once they return home as no match is insignificant to us,’ said Gazi Ashraf, also a former national captain.
‘They have played well in Sri Lanka and also defeated Malaysia by maximum margin. It was unthinkable that they would lose to the same team,’ said Gazi Ashraf.
In Sri Lanka, the Bangladesh Under-19 team reached the final of a tri-nation tournament at the expense of the hosts before losing to India.
They went to Malaysia straight from Colombo to play four one-day matches as part of their build-up for the ICC Under-19 World Cup. Malaysia will host the competition in February-March next year.
Considering the defeat to Malaysia is a wake-up call for the Bangladesh under-19 team, Gazi Ashraf said he has already asked coach Fahim to send full details of the match.
‘At present we don’t have the full scorecard of the match. We will get an idea about what had happened once we see it. I also told Fahim to send us the full scorecards of the next two matches as well,’ said Gazi Ashraf.
‘Now I just hope it was an upset, which I must say can happen in cricket at any level,’ added the former national captain.
The team, led by middle-order batsman Mahmudul Hasan, is expected to return home on August 10.