Ashraful made new captain

As expected, right-handed top order batsman Mohammad Ashraful, the world's youngest century-maker in test debut, has been named captain of Bangladesh cricket team both for the test and ODI till the Twenty/20 World Cup Cricket to be held in South Africa September this year.

Speed star-cum-talented hard hitting lower order batsman Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who was adjudged man of the match in the first test against giant India in Chittagong last month, has been made his deputy.

Ashraful, who acted as national vice-captain, replaced long serving Bangladesh skipper Kazi Habibul Bashar Sumon.

Bashar, who took the captaincy from Khaled Mahmud Sujon in January 2004, announced to quit ODI captaincy after his frustrating home series against India at the end of last month.

But Bashar lost the test captaincy too as the BCB was unwilling to take a luxurious decision to make separate captains for bot Test and ODI cricket. Bangladesh's outgoing coach Dav Whatmore, in his last briefing, also suggested not to go for separate captains.

The decision was taken at a marathon executive committee meeting of BCB at a local hotel on Saturday.

The meeting also named its (BCB) national game development manager Shaun Williams as the interim coach of the Bangladesh team while Ali Asif Khan retained as the team operation manager of national team.

The 22-year-old Mohammad Ashraful, who played 35 test and 101 ODI matches and have the experiences of playing in the Asian squad, will captain the Bangladesh team in the ensuing Sri Lanka tour, beginning this month. Ashraful made his test debut also against Sri Lanka in Colombo in September 2001.

Bangladesh will play a three-match test and three-match ODI series beginning on June 25 in Colombo with a test match.