The New Nation - Internet Edition

GP-BCB Academy 295 for 8 on 1st day

UNB, Dhaka

The GP-BCB Academy team, riding on a Mehrab Hossain Jr ton, scored 295 for 8 in 90 overs against South Africa Academy team on the first day of the 2nd four-day match of the Grameenphone Academy Cup at Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Matiur Rahman Stadium in Khulna on Wednesday.

Batting first after winning the toss, GP-BCB National Cricket Academy team faced initial collapse losing top three wickets of Jahirul Islam (0), Imrul Kayes (23) and skipper Nasiruddin Faruk (16) for 48 runs in 10.4 overs.

But number five Mehrab Hossain Jr had two good partnerships to carry the team total to a respectable position.

Mehrab Jr, pairing with two down Nayeem Islam, put up 93 runs in the 4th wicket stand and another 80 runs in the fifth wicket stand with Shamsur Rahman.

Mehrab scored 102 runs off 177 balls with 15 boundaries, number six Shamsur Rahman made 58 off 135 balls with six fours and two sixes, while Nayeem Islam made 32 off 89 balls with three fours.

Lower order Suhrawardi Shuvo and tail-ender Rubel Hossain were batting with 27 and 4 runs respectively, while national colour wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim scored only three runs.

Neil Wagner claimed three wickets for 64 runs while C De Villiers and Richard Neves took two wickets each.

Earlier, in the first four-day match, the home team beat the visitors by an innings and 68 runs at the Shamsul Huda Stadium in Jessore.

On completion of the 2nd four-dayer, the Pakistan Academy team will arrive here on April 14 to participate in the triangular one-day tournament involving South Africa Academy team and GP-BCB Academy team.

After the one-day tournament, the Pakistan side will play two four-day matches against their Bangladesh counterparts - the first on Apr 26-29 at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium (SCS) in Bogra and the 2nd on May 2-5 at the Rajshahi Divisional Stadium (RDVS).

Bangladesh team for Intl U/15 Cricket announced

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Under-15 will leave here for West Indies on April 15 to participate in the eight-team CLICO International U/15 Challenge Cricket Championship that will begin on April 19.

Bangladesh will play against Holland, while hosts West Indies meet Zimbabwe in two opening day's knockout matches in Barbados.

The two-tier tournament will start with the knockout phase from April 19-24. Later, the league basis competition from April 26-May 4 will be played in Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Guyana, Barbados and St Kitts.

Participating teams: West Indies, Bangladesh, Holland, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ireland, Pakistan and ICC Americas team (comprising players from Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands and The Bahamas).

In group stage (league matches), Bangladesh will face hosts West Indies on Apr 26 at Queen's Park Oval, Kenya on Apr 27 at NCC, Couva, and Ireland on Apr 29 at the same venue.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Cricket Board today (Wednesday) announced a 14-member Bangladesh Under-15 team with Iktedar Nazeef Ahmed as captain and Liton Kumar Das as his deputy.

Bangladesh U-15 team: Iktedar Nazeef Ahmed (Captain), Liton Kumer Das (Vice Captain), Anisur Rahman, Mehdi Hasan Anik, SM Ahmedul Kabir (Rudro), Khwaja Khairuddin (Jesan), Rakin Ahmed, Ratnak Saha, Shihabuddin Ahmed Arpon, Shahariar Islam (Sumon), Didar Hossain (Imran), Nasum Ahmed, M Jashimuddin and Asif Hasan (Mitul).

Team Management - Waheedul Ghani (Head Coach cum Manager), Abdul Hadi Ratan (Coach) and Sharif Mahmud Palash (Operations Manager).

National Judo Competition begins tomorrow

Sports Reporter

The two-day-long 28th National Judo Competition begins tomorrow at the Gymnasium of National Sports Council (NSC). Bangladesh Judo Federation will arrange the judo meet under auspices of the City Bank Limited.

Bangladesh Judo Federation arranged a press conference at the conference room of NSC on Wednesday on the eve of the ensuing judo meet. Assistant Vice-Chairman of the City Bank Limited Yahia, Programme Adviser of ATN Bangla Nowajish Ali Khan, Vice-Chairman of Tournament Committee Awlad Hossain, Vice-President of Bangladesh Judo Federation Ekramul Haque, General Secretary of Bangladesh Judo Federation Md Abdul Qadir, Treasurer of the Federation Md. Samshir Alam Bhuiyan were present at the conference.

182 men competitors and 106 women participants from different associations, services teams and universities will take part in the two-day-long judo competition.

CEO of Bangladesh Olympic Association Colonel (Retd) Md Wali Ullah will inaugurate the judo tournament tomorrow at 10.00 AM as the chief guest while Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Mahbub Jamil will distribute the prizes and certificates among the winners as the chief guest on the concluding day (April 12). Chairman of the City Bank Limited Aziz Al Kaisar and Programme Adviser of ATN Bangla Nowajish Ali Khan will be present as the special guest at the time.

BFF president explains success, failure during his tenure

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president SA Sultan Wednesday claimed that the BFF under his tenure has achieved more success than the previous executive committee.

"We arranged a lot of domestic soccer matches in the last five years and got a handsome sponsor," he said at a press conference at the BFF Bhaban in the afternoon.

The BFF boss said anyone in charge of something may have some successes as well as failures. "It's the same in my case also. Still, I'm sure the present committee has made major contributions for the development of country's football."

Asked if he would contest in the upcoming BFF election, Sultan said: "Personally, I have no intention of contesting the election. But I will ponder over the matter if the situation so demands."

Warid starts SMS Cricket Quiz on Bangladesh tour to Pakistan

Sports Reporter

Warid Telecom has launched SMS-based cricket quiz competition for its subscribers on the occasion of Bangladesh cricket team's tour of Pakistan. The contest officially announced on Tuesday, which will end on April 20 at 11: 59 pm.

During the 13-days cricket contest, highest scorer of each day will win a Sony Ericsson W 200i handset, the press announcement stated. According to the statement, total 13 lucky winners will get this mouth watering mobile set as part of the campaign. The highest scorer of the entire campaign will be announced as the tournament winner, who will be awarded a latest Sony Ericsson W 810i handset.

It was also mentioned that the declaration of daily winner will come up after every three days and the announcement of tournament winner will be announced after three days of the quiz deadline. The grand prize-giving ceremony will take place within 10 working days after the announcement of the winner.

Every Warid subscribers can take part in this interactive quiz contest. All they have to do is to receive a contest invitation through SMS from Warid on April 7, 2008. Replying the invitation by "Ok" the Warid customers can register themselves for the contest.

The customers, who are yet to receive the invitation or have lost or deleted the invitation can register by sending an 'ok' SMS to 3114.

The customers can also register through Warid SIM Genie menu. He or she has to select "Warid Menu > Entertainment > Games > Quiz".

Once registered, a customer will get a quiz everyday. Answering any quiz will lead him or her to receiving two SMS, one for confirming for the correctness of the answer, everyday score and tournament score and the other SMS for a new quiz. The registered customers will get the next quiz only after replying to a question.

There will be a pool of 50 questions each day, which will be cycled as many times as the customers desire to answer. In each day there will be a fresh set of questions. Each correct answer will give a customer one run or point. There will be no negative marking for wrong answer.

Winners of any previous cricket quiz campaigns are not eligible to participate this quiz contest. Even if she or he participates and scores the highest, the subscriber will not be declared as winner and therefore will not be awarded. Warid employees or their family members are not also eligible to take part in this quiz.

Regular SMS rate will be charged in every message in this campaign.

Lanka- Windies 1st ODI today

AFP, Trinidad

Sri Lanka will use the three-match one-day international series against West Indies which opens here on Thursday to kick-start their preparations for the 2011 World Cup.

Sri Lanka have made sweeping changes to the squad which drew the preceding two-Test series 1-1 with their hosts, and seven new players have been included to boost their stocks.

"There are a lot of youngsters, and what we are trying to do is develop a team for the next World Cup," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said.

"We are going to try a few guys, some exciting youngsters. We want to be competitive against West Indies and see where we are in terms of our preparation for the World Cup.

"It's going to be a very good series because West Indies are a very good one-day unit as well."

Joining the squad for the ODI series are openers Upul Tharanga and Chamara Kapugedera, batsmen Ajantha Mendis, Mahela Udawatte, and Jehan Mubarak, all- rounder Kaushalya Weeraratne, and leg-spinner Malinga Bandara.

They have replaced Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, Thilan Samaraweera, Prasanna Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ishara Amerasinge, and Chanaka Welegedara.

"Test cricket and ODI cricket are totally different, and you need to totally focus yourself on the ODIs differently," Jayawardene said.

"We've got new guys coming into the set-up. Our challenge is to try and blend quickly as possible, get them going and play some good cricket. We're looking forward to it."

Sri Lanka will jointly host the 2011 World Cup with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and Jayawardene disclosed that his side is again setting itself the goal of reaching the Final as they did in the 2007 version in the Caribbean where they lost to three-time defending champions Australia.

"Cricket is going to go on, and players will come and go," he said. "We just need to make sure we have the right combinations going.

"It is just two-and-a-half years away from the World Cup. We need to make sure we get the personnel right and give opportunities.

"If you are going to bring youngsters in, those guys need to play at least 40 or 50 ODIs before the World Cup."

West Indies appear to have a similar, but less publicised policy, when they announced a 16-member squad.

Off-spin bowler Amit Jaggernauth is the only casualty from the 13-member squad picked for the second Test which ended on Sunday with a six-wicket victory for the home team, and four players have been added to bolster the squad.

Coming into the side are wicketkeeper/batsman Patrick Browne, Runako Morton, Kieron Pollard, and all-rounder Darren Sammy.

Browne played a couple impressive innings when he made his ODI debut in South Africa, and Morton has scored heavily in the domestic first-class competition since his return from South Africa and was still overlooked for the Test series.

Pollard was a contentious choice for the World Cup side last year and then was strangely ignored, and the hardworking Sammy too, has been treated harshly when he was overlooked for the Tests against the Sri Lankans, although he has hardly placed a foot wrong since his Test debut.

The second ODI will be played on Saturday, also at Queen's Park Oval, and the final match will be a day/night contest next Tuesday, April 15, at the Beausejour Stadium in St. Lucia.

Squads

West Indies (from): Chris Gayle (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan

(vice-capt), Sulieman Benn, Patrick Browne, Dwayne Bravo,

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Fidel Edwards,

Runako Morton, Keiron Pollard, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin,

Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor

Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jaywardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara (vice-capt), Malinga Bandara, Tillakeratne Dilshan, Rangana Herath, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekera, Ajantha Mendis, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Thushara, Mahela Udawatte, Chaminda Vaas, Kaushalya Weeraratne,.