Ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan was named as the Test captain of Bangladesh as it was expected.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon made the announcement today, while confirming Liton Das as vice-captain for the longer version format.
The announcement came two days after Mominul Haque decided to quit the Test captaincy following a lean batting streak that extended to seven straight single digit figures.
He could just reach double digit mark thrice in the last 15 innings, which gave the critics an opportunity to raise their voice high against him.
“A total of three players were in contention to be the captain of Test side,” Papon said after the board’s executive committee’s meeting held today at BCB’s headquarters at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.
“At first, we decided to announce a vice-captain alongside Test captain. So after an elaborate discussion, we have decided to appoint Shakib as the captain for this format. Liton Das will act as his deputy.”
Shakib will start leading the side for the third time from the upcoming West Indies series. Coincidentally in the last two times, he also began his captaincy career against West Indies.
Shakib firstly was appointed as the captain during Bangladesh’s tour in West Indies in 2009 after Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was injured on the first day of the first Test. That remains Mashrafe’s last Test.
Under Shakib’s captaincy, Bangladesh won that series to make a history as that was the Tigers’ first series victory on foreign soil.
Following a disastrous Zimbabwe tour in 2011, Shakib was stripped off the captaincy but back to being the captain again in 2018 when Mushfiqur Rahim stepped down.
At this phase, Shakib led the side till 2019 before being banned by ICC for two years for his failure to report the corrupt approaches from the bookies.
In those two terms, Shakib led the side in 14 matches and won just three while lost 11.
The board however was in dilemma to give him the captaincy since he was not quite regular in Test format of late. But Shakib ensured that from now on, he will play the longer version format as regular basis.
According to most of the board members, Shakib is the best option to lead the side in Test cricket if he plays this format regularly.
Mominul led the side in 17 matches and won three including a memorable Test win against New Zealand on Black Caps den earlier this year. Under his captaincy, Bangladesh lost 12 matches and drew two. But of late he was unable to motivate the side because of his serious bad patch.
Mominul was given Test captaincy in 2019 after Shakib Al Hasan was banned from the cricket.
SEOUL, June 2: Neymar scored two calmly taken penalties as Brazil fired a World Cup warning with a 5-1 thrashing of South Korea in Seoul on Thursday.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward scored his 72nd and 73rd goals for his country to close on Pele’s record of 77 for Brazil.
Neymar also upstaged South Korean captain Son Heung-min, the joint Premier League Golden Boot winner, who was kept quiet by a rampant Brazil at a packed Seoul World Cup Stadium.
Neymar’s status for the match had been up in the air after he suffered a right foot injury during training on Wednesday, but he was the star of the show on a night when Richarlison, Philippe Coutinho and Gabriel Jesus all scored.
Brazil, ranked number one in the FIFA rankings, fielded a strong side and looked dangerous almost from the opening seconds with a header by Thiago Silva wiped out by an offside call.
Brazil took advantage of poor South Korean defending to take the lead on seven minutes.
Alex Sandro was left open as he charged into the left side of the box and he set up Fred for a shot from close range. The Manchester United midfielder misfired, but the ball took a fortuitous bounce to Richarlison, whose scrappy effort deflected in off goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu.
Bordeaux forward Hwang Ui-jo levelled the score for the hosts on the half-hour mark, turning and firing it in off the left post with a smart finish.
But that goal came against the run of play and Brazil went ahead again on 42 minutes.
South Korean defender Lee Yong was called for a foul on Sandro inside the box and after a video review Neymar stepped up, calmly putting his penalty to the left of goalkeeper Kim.
SAO PAULO, June 2: Brazilian football legend Pele called Wednesday for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his army’s invasion of Ukraine, as the war-torn country’s national team was set to vie for a World Cup spot.
“Today Ukraine tries to forget, at least for 90 minutes, the tragedy that still engulfs their country,” Pele wrote in an open letter to Putin, posted on Instagram just before the Ukrainian men’s football team faced Scotland in a World Cup playoff semi-final.
“I want to use today’s match as an opportunity to make a request: stop the invasion. There is absolutely no justification for this continued violence,” added the three-time World Cup champion.
“This conflict is wicked, unjustifiable and brings nothing but pain, fear, terror and anguish... Wars only exist to separate nations, and there’s no ideology that justifies projectile missiles burying the dreams of children, ruining families and killing the innocent.”
Pele recalled meeting Putin in the past and exchanging “smiles accompanied by a long handshake.”
“The power to stop this conflict is in your hands. The same ones I shook in Moscow, at our last meeting in 2017,” he wrote.
Considered by many the greatest footballer of all time, Pele had one of the most storied careers in sport, scoring more than 1,000 goals before retiring in 1977.
He has been in poor health recently, undergoing surgery last September for a colon tumor, followed by ongoing chemotherapy.
His message comes as the Ukraine conflict nears its 100th day, with fierce fighting ongoing in the nation’s east, after the Russian army failed in its bid to overtake Kyiv.
The match in Glasgow is the first for the Ukrainian national team since the invasion began.
The winners will face Wales on Sunday to decide who will be the final member of Group B—alongside England, the United States and Iran.
It was a impressive performance by Bangladesh national football team as they forced host Indonesia to play a goalless draw in the lone FIFA Tier-1 Int’l match held on Wednesday at Si Jalak Harapur Stadium, Bandung, in Indonesia.
The day’s creditable result will definitely boost up the Jamal Bhuyan and co. ahead of their Asian Cup qualifiers in Malaysia where the boys in red and green will meet three big teams.
In the day’s match, both the teams got several scoring chances but failed to break the deadlock in the whole proceeding.
The host side however were desperate to break the stalemate producing some real scoring chances in the dying moment, but the Bangladesh team’s defenders were remained firm and could not allow any damage by keeping the net unhurt till the final whistle.
After playing the FIFA friendly match against Indonesia, Bangladesh will move to Malaysia to take part in the AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers scheduled to be held from June 8-14.
Bangladesh which placed at group E along with Bahrain Turkmenistan and Malaysia in the AFC Asian Cup, will take on Bahrain on June 8 before facing Turkmenistan on June 11 in their second group match.
The boys in red and green will play their third and last group match against host Malaysia on June 14.
Bangladesh team:
Anisur Rahman, Bishwanath Ghosh, Rimon Hossain, Tutul Hossain Badshah, Yasin Arafat, Biplu Ahmed, Jamal Bhuyan, Atiqur Rahman Fahad, Rakib Hossain, Mohammad Ibrahim and Sazzad Hossain.