SA women level series

daily sun, 8 September 2012

A superlative effort by Dane van Niekerk and Shibnam Ismail helped visiting South Africa women’s team defeat hosts Bangladesh by four wickets to level the three-match ODI series 1-1 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Bangladesh, batting first, set a target of 180 and earned applauds from the crowd present at the national stadium.

However, the eves later dropped three catches which ultimately cost them the match.

Maiden half-centuries by middle-order batters, Farazana Haque (55) and Lata Mondol (52) helped Bangladesh to score their second best total in the ODIs. Coming into reply, South African women’s team found themselves in troubled waters as they were four down with only 33 runs on the board.

However, a couple of brilliant partnerships steadied the Proteas innings. The 64-run partnership between Alison Hodgkinson and Marizanne Kapp was the turning point for the visitors.

39 runs by Kapp and another 33 by Hodgkinson gave the base to the chase and later, unbeaten 45 runs by Dane van and 24 runs by Shibnam helped the side claim the victory.

“I think being in such situation is always puts you under a little bit of pressure, but we stuck to our goal, stayed with the plan and stayed calm. The batters know that as long as they stay in the middle, the runs will keep coming. And that’s exactly what the girls have done. The partnership between Hodgkinson and Kapp helped us win the game,” said South African skipper Mignon du Preez.

While the away side was celebrating the win, Bangladesh skipper Salma Khatun was explaining what went wrong.

“I think we fielded badly. We missed a few catches. If we could hold those catches, I think we could have won the match. At same time, the spinners were not as good as they were in the first match. I am hopeful they will comeback strong in the next match,” hoped Salma.

Quarter-final rounds kick off today

Daily Star, 6 September 2012

A total of 200 promising footballers reported for the quarter-finals of the ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ which will kick off at BKSP today.

The players have been split into eight divisional teams with two from Dhaka will play matches among them.

Though one of these eight teams will ultimately win the championship, three professional coaches from Manchester United will pick the final 12 rising stars.

Launched in association with English Premier League side Manchester United, ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ is a rigorous scouting program being held in 3 rounds conducted over a span of 3 months, at the end of which, top 12 players (under 16 years of age) will be selected for training at Old Trafford, Manchester United.

Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters Zamal Mollah leads Bangladesh golfers

Daily Sun, 6 September 2012

Bangladesh rising-golfer Zamal Hossain Mollah fired three-under-par 69 to tee off the Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters at a joint eleventh place at the Kota Permai Golf and Country Club on Wednesday.

Zamal was tied with highly rated Arnond Vongvanij and Prom Meesawat of Thailand, Malaysia’s Nicholas Fung and Jhonnel Ababa of the Philippines.

However, Bangladesh golfing pioneer Siddikur Rahman was on three-under with three more holes to play, when the play was suspended at 7.05pm local time.

Another Bangladesh golfer Shakhawat Sohel finished the round 1 on 71st position.

Meanwhiole, Thai legend Thaworn Wiratchant renewed his Malaysian love affair as he fired an opening six-under-par 66 for the clubhouse lead.

Thaworn, whose record 13 Asian Tour titles include two victories in Malaysia, carded one eagle, four birdies and a lone bogey at the Kota Permai Golf and Country Club, a venue where he was victorious in 2001.

American Jonathan Moore, the reigning Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit champion, recovered from two early bogeys to shoot a 67 for second place while Javi Colomo of Spain was a further stroke back in the RM1.2 million (approximately US$395,000) Asian Tour event.

Nat’l booters-refs exchange views at rare gathering

Daily Sun, 6 September 2012

National-level footballers and the leading referees of the country exchanged their views and thoughts in a meeting held at BFF House on Wednesday.

All the players and the coaches of the Red, Green, Yellow and White teams, participating in the pre-season training conducted by Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) were present on the occasion.

The rare occasion opened the door to exploring a new horizon for players, who were often found not updated with the new rules of the game.

All the aspects of the game like fouls, misconduct with the match officials, opponents, even with own teammates, and penalty. Equipments that are eligible, mandatory and not eligible were discussed in the meeting.

Off-side, one of the most complicated aspects of the beautiful game was the most discussed part of the gathering.

To provide a deep look in the off-side rules the referees committee of BFF showed power-point presentations of different angles.

“The players were keen to learn from the presentation. As a referee we often face objection about the off-sides. We tried to show what is right and what is wrong. We tried to make the new rules understandable for them,” said Azad Rahman, one of the leading referees of the country.

Leading defender and former national skipper Md Shujon asked the referees about the action when an opponent player intentionally wastes time to maintain the lead.

“You may draw the attention of the referee, that’s negative football. The player may get cautioned and it’s not that the referees are not aware of the foul play which violates the Fifa Fair Play rule,” answered Monirul Islam, the deputy chairman of BFF’s referee’s committee.

BFF vice-president Badal Roy, executive committee member Sheikh Md Maruf Hasan, professional league committee officials, Abdur Rahim, Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir, BFF development committee member, BFF Hasanuzzaman Khan Bablu were also present on the occasion.

Bangladesh eves take on SA women’s team today

Daily Sun, 6 September 2012

Bangladesh national women’s cricket team will kick off their three-match ODI series against the visiting South Africa women’s team at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium today.

Led by 21-year old Salma Khatun, the local side will lock horns with the semi-finalists of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2000, who are in Dhaka to cope with the sub-continental conditions ahead of their ICC Women’s World Twenty20 campaign in Sri Lanka this month.

BCB national selection panel declared a 14-member squad for the ODI series on Wednesday evening.

Four new faces, Saila Sharmin, Champa Chakma, Lily Rani and Tajia Akter were introduced in the side, while five members from the squad that toured Ireland last month, Ayesha Akter, Panna Ghosh, Sultana Yesmin, Tithi Rani and Sanjida Islam have been named as stand-bys for the ODI series.

Bangladesh head coach and Former Sri Lanka cricketer Oshadi Weerasinghe informed that his girls are not aware of the strength of the visitors. Similar sentiment echoed from Salma, who will get down to battle opponents they never fought before.

“We don’t know the opposition as well as they don’t know our strengths and weaknesses. So it would be a good game tomorrow,” said Salma who was not happy with their performance in Ireland and is looking forward to a good competition.

“We did not do well in Ireland so we are determined to put up a good show and we hope to get the advantage of playing at home. I think the pitch would behave the way it used to and our spinners can play a big part in it,” said Salma.

However, Salma’s counterpart, the South African skipper Mignon du Preez is aware of the fact that her side will have to face many spinners due to the way the wicket at Mirpur behaves.

“I know there will be a lot of spinners in action and we have trained hard to play them. We are looking forward to play them,” said the 23-year old who is looking forward to play in Bangladesh.

“We haven’t played against each other before so we don’t really know what to expect. I think we would be into the series by winning the games in the end. We would assess tomorrow morning what would be a good target,” said Preez.

Bangladesh squad for the three-match ODI series:

Salma Khatun (Captain), Ayesha Rahman, Sharmin Akter Supta, Rumana Ahmed, Fargana Hoque, Jahanara Alam, Lata Mondol, Nuzhat Tasnim, Khadijatul Kobra, Ritu Moni, Saila Sharmin, Lily Rani, Tajia Akter, Champa Chakma

Stand by: Ayesha Akter, Panna Ghosh, Sultana Yesmin, Tithi Rani, Sanjida Islam.