& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

BCB goes for longer-version at age-group level

SPORTS REPORTER
The recent debacle of the senior team in Sri Lanka has brought about the realisation in Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that age-group competitions would be the perfect platform to habituate future cricketers with the longer-version of the game.
The board on Wednesday made public the domestic calendar for the 2005-06 season as per their commitment of providing a meaningful domestic schedule. It includes longer version competitions in different under-15 and under-17 tournaments.
Chief selector Faruque Ahmed had
been advocating longer-version cricket at age-groups for a long time as he is certain that the problem with adapting to Test cricket lies in the mind of players. He has been vocal in his demand for two or three-day fixtures at grass-roots level to ensure a healthy future for the Tigers.
"We had suggested to the board to introduce longer-version cricket in the age-group because it is now clear that our cricketers have to learn the trick from an early age. We have a bunch of talented cricketers in the national side but you can see that they lack the patience to build an innings," observed Faruque.
The former national captain however said that time was a crucial factor to properly accommodate the longer
version competitions.
"Our domestic season is actually restricted to six or seven months and that's why it is impossible to arrange the competitions as per our desire."
Six junior cricket competitions (u-13, u-15 and u-17) are scheduled to finish between December '05 to February '06.
The under-15 divisional cricket tournament (January) will be two-day matches and will include limited-overs games while the under-17 divisional tournament will see one-day, two-day and three-day fixtures.
On completion of the junior meets three different age group school cricket tournaments will be played from February to March next year.
The board has also decided to pull out of its traditional knockout-based school cricket and has opted for a league format to give the teams an opportunity to play at least four or five games.
The coming domestic season will start with the 12-team Corporate Cricket League from October 10 and it will be followed by the National Cricket League, First Division Cricket League, Premier Division Cricket League and the National Youth Championship due in April.
The most noticeable aspect of the domestic calendar is that the Premier League will be played between breaks in the National League which is the only first-class competition in the country.