in the junior side but was also made captain for the mega event while Quazi Nurul Hasan was appointed his deputy.

In another major move, former national team coach Sarwar Imran has been given the task of taking care of the under-19 side till

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) brought in major changes when they announced a 15-member Bangladesh Under-19 squad for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 to be held in Brisbane, Australia in August.

The board made the changes following the team's failure to qualify for the semifinals of the Asia Cup, where they were eliminated by Afghanistan and Sri Lanka during the group stage.

Anamul Haque, the wicketkeeper batsman who was ignored from the national side's Europe trip, was not only retained for duty

the World Cup as the head coach. Zafrul Ehsan, who worked with the team for the last one and a half years, was discharged from his duties due to the Asia Cup debacle.

Besides Anamul three other key players in Liton Kumar Das, Taskin Ahmed and Abu Jayed Chowdhury were included in the team after they recovered from their injuries and selector Sajjad Ahmed Shipon believes that the inclusion of four major players will help strengthen the squad.

“It's nice that we got back four of our vital players for the World Cup. We are now really confident with this team. The presence of Anamul and Liton definitely changes the whole scenario in the top order batting. And this is for the first time we got the full strength team,” said Shipon.

Coach Sarwar Imran, who had resigned from the BCB last December, also expressed his optimism as he believes that this team has the potential to play good cricket in the World Cup.

“I am going to get three-four weeks to

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prepare the team and I am hopeful that this team will perform well in Australia. Under the guidance of (Zafrul) Ehsan this team has been preparing for the last year and a half and I had the experience of working with some of the boys at different times,” said Imran.

“Our main challenge would be to acclimatise ourselves with the Australian conditions as early as possible and it is nice that we are going early and that we are able to play some practice matches before the tournament proper. I think match-practice will not be an issue as we will be playing some practice matches at home and in Australia,” he added.

Bangladesh, who have been placed in Group D along with Sri Lanka, South Africa and Namibia in the 16-team competition,

will depart for Australia on July 27 and play two unofficial and as many official practice matches before the tournament proper.

The team is also scheduled to play three limited overs practice matches at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium, Khulna against a BCB InvitationalXIonJuly 17,18and20.

The selected players have been asked to report to head coach Sarwar Imran at the BCB National Cricket Academy today at 5pm.

SQUAD

Anamul Haque (captain), Quazi Nurul Hasan (vice-captain), Asif Ahmed, Soumya Sarkar, Salman Hossain, Al Amin, Nur Hossain, Musaddek Hossain, Nayem Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Abu Jayed Chowdhury, Taskin Ahmed, Dewan Shabbir Ahmed, Abu Haider and Litton Kumar Das.