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Chattogram Challengers head coach Paul Nixon was seen demonstrating the stance and right technique for reverse sweep to right-handed batter Sabbir Rahman during practice at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram yesterday. The Challengers, despite not having a star-studded squad, sit second in the points table with two wins from three games. Now that the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League moves to Chattogram for its second phase, to begin tomorrow with the game between Chattogram and Khulna Tigers, Chattogram would hope to further solidify their chances in the title race as they are set to play their next four fixtures at home.

South American

stars sweating

on qualification
AFP, Montevideo
Three of South American football’s biggest stars -- Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Alexis Sanchez -- risk missing out on the World Cup in Qatar as South American qualifying enters its final straight.
With Brazil and Argentina already qualified, seven nations are battling it out for the final two automatic qualifying spots with just four matches remaining.
Right now Suarez and Cavani’s Uruguay and Sanchez’s Chile are both sitting a point outside the crucial fourth spot held by Colombia. Uruguay are currently seventh and have changed coaches since the last round of matches in November.
After a record-breaking 15 years at the helm, iconic veteran coach Oscar Tabarez was fired following a disastrous fourth straight qualifying defeat in which Uruguay conceded 11 goals and scored just one.
Diego Alonso will take charge of the team for the first time in a bid to negotiate the tricky path towards Qatar.
Twice former winners, Uruguay have not failed to qualify for the World Cup since 2006.
Uruguay travel to Paraguay on Thursday before hosting Venezuela -- the only team in the single 10-nation qualifying group with no realistic hope of reaching Qatar -- on February 1.
Only Venezuela and the top two -- Brazil and Argentina -- have nothing to play for. But even though Paris Saint-Germain teammates Neymar and Argentina’s Lionel Messi have been left back in Europe, neither side will be expected to take their remaining matches lightly.
“In the few matches that remain, no coach is going to do a lot of experimenting,” Brazilian commentator Paulo Calcade of the Disney sports channels told AFP.

Ctg phase to find cure

for low-scoring pitch?
SPORTS REPORTER
Pitch remained at the centre of all discussions as the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League fixtures shift from Dhaka to the port city of Chattogram tomorrow.
Among the eight matches played so far in the Dhaka leg, 112.5 was the average first-innings total in four games played under the daylight. In sharp contrast, the four games played under the lights at the same ground produced an average first-innings total of 173, where Khulna Tigers even chased down a target of 183 against Minister Group Dhaka. At night, the highest total of 190 for 7 was posted by Chattogram Challengers against Khulna.
Interestingly, like the difference of the nature of surfaces between the day and night games, there were different opinions from the players of the participating teams regarding the lacklustre display from the batters so far.
According to Sylhet Sunrisers captain Mosaddek Hossain, it is difficult for the batters to score runs freely in the day games in Mirpur whereas the pitch does the rest for the bowlers, who only have to hit the right areas.
However, Bangladesh ODI skipper and Dhaka opener Tamim Iqbal stated that the batters are to be blamed for the poor show instead of the pitch after his side were bundled out for just 100 runs against Sylhet to face their third defeat in four games on Tuesday.
Veteran local coach Sarwar Imran resonated with Tamim’s stance. However, he points to the curators eventually.
“These are not ideal T20 pitches, to be honest. But still, the batters need to adjust with the surface no matter how the pitch behaves. It’s also about the mindset you get in as a batsman. And when scoring boundaries are difficult, you need to look for the singles and doubles,” Imran told The Daily Star.
“Another thing is, most of our batters lack T20 techniques as they don’t have the proper balance and position for a big hit. But at the same time, I really wonder why the curators are unable to prepare good pitches.”
According to a former Bangladesh Cricket Board curator Badiul Alam Khokon, curators’ lack of knowledge is also a big reason for failing to produce high-scoring pitches in Dhaka.
He also revealed the reason why the upcoming Chattogram leg is expected to produce high-scoring encounters compared to Mirpur.
“First of all, the curators don’t roll the Mirpur pitch enough. It’s simple math, the more you roll the surface, the better it gets for batting. The other thing is the dew, as you noticed the night games produced runs because the ball skids on the surface for the dew factor,” informed Khokhon.
“I’ve seen the curators in Dhaka have been using cut grass in the pitch and when you have dead grass, it tends to take the pace off the ball once it lands on the surface. When the pitch gets dry it also tends to slow gradually.
“Chattogram surface, on the other hand, has live grass in it which allows the ball to generate more pace after pitching. It’s also because we don’t play many matches in Chattogram, so the curators get enough time to take care of the pitches properly,” said Khokon.