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U-19s confident despite challenges
SPORTS REPORTER
Bangladesh Under-19s are gearing up to defend their title in West Indies, starting with their fixture against England at Basseterre, St Kitts on January 16 in the upcoming ICC Under-19 World Cup.
Captain Rakibul Hasan, who was instrumental in Bangladesh’s triumph in the previous edition of the tournament, was hopeful that the newly-built side can do something special.
“The goal would be to at least make the semifinals,” the skipper urged.
Pakistan are the only country to successfully defend their title when they followed up their triumph in 2004 by winning the trophy again in 2006. Rakibul was confident they can repeat the feat while also reiterating that the loss to India in the recently-concluded Under-19 Asia Cup will not dent the young Tigers’ confidence.
“I don’t think there will be any problems. We have been working on our batting and hope things will go smoothly in the tournament. Of course we want to win it again. Every team came here to win,” he added.
However, things were a bit challenging in terms of preparation this time around.
“This year we could not prepare adequately due to the Covid situation. We’re hoping the upcoming matches will see us play our best cricket if we can execute our plans,” he said. Rakibul has the experience of playing this tournament and he was hoping to use that to his advantage in leading a young side.
“Last time we had a good squad and this time around the challenges will be quite similar but we have the kind of players to once again prove our mettle,” he said.
Salahuddin ponders appointing foreign refs for BPL
SPORTS REPORTER
Following the controversy over the referees’ decisions in the recently concluded Federation Cup, Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin is thinking of appointing foreign referees to conduct a few important fixtures of the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) starting from February 3.
BFF professional league management committee chairman and senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy, however, ruled out the possibility of foreign referees’ appointment on Monday after Saif SC had urged on the matter citing referee bias during their Federation Cup semifinal against Abahani.
The statement from Salahuddin came yesterday following a meeting with a group of Mohammedan officials, who also raised questions over referees’ decisions in their Federation Cup semifinal against Rahmatganj MFS.
“There are so many questions coming up [regarding the referees’ decisions] and it is a very good idea to have foreign coaches officiate in about 10 to 12 important league matches. If the cancellation of the penalty in the match between Saif SC and Abahani was made by the foreign referees, there would not have been any confusion,” Salahuddin told The Daily Star yesterday.
“If I can afford the financial aspect, a bunch of foreign referees will be hired. The local referees can also learn from them. But I don’t want to have foreign coaches officiate in all the league matches as that would prove detrimental for the local coaches,” Salahuddin added.
Uncertainty looms over Indonesia friendlies
SPORTS REPORTER
A bit of uncertainty looms over Bangladesh’s two FIFA friendlies against Indonesia this month after the hosts insisted on players and coaching staff being fully vaccinated in order to enter the country.
Under the guidance of the new Spanish coach Javier Cabrera, who is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on Saturday, Bangladesh national football team are scheduled to play two friendly matches against Indonesia on January 24 and 27.
“On Tuesday, the Football Association of Indonesia informed that Bangladesh contingent needs to have received two dosages of coronavirus vaccine in order to enter their country,” Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag told The Daily Star yesterday.
“They [Indonesia] will let us know about their decision tomorrow [Thursday] whether we can enter Indonesia having received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine,” Shohag added.
Replying to a query, Shohag said, “We can arrange vaccines for the players by tomorrow [Thursday] but the problem is that some seven to eight players took the first dosage of vaccine a few days ago and they are not eligible to take the second dosage of vaccine anytime soon. ”