Dhaka, May 8 (UNB) – When people in Bangladesh discuss sports often they miss out the sporting event of golf, but it comes under spotlight since trailblazing golfer Siddikur Rahman carried the national flag as a competitor in the Olympic in 2016.

Many know the story of country’s two-time Asian Tour winner Siddikur, who lactated as a petite caddy-boy at Kurmitola Golf Club (KGC) is singly opened the door for the other golfers of the country. 

Though a very small portion of the population knows about the golf itself, which symbolizes sophistication and is still non popular game in Bangladesh, Siddikur is proudly representing Bangladesh in the world event. 

Siddikur is the only golfer getting all the spotlights, but people of the country are still unaware about the talents Bangladesh has in this sports. 

Mentioning that the federation is working toward getting a stronger position for Bangladesh in golf, Lt Col Mohammad Abdul Bari (Retd) General Manager of Golf Operations of Kurmitola Golf Club (KGC) and coordinator of Bangladesh Golf Federation (BGF) told UNB, the federation selects player based on their score and make an Amateur National Golf Team of 10 players.

"In the last three and a half years, around 10 professional golfers have been explored who can participate in the upcoming Asian Tour games, he added.  

“In terms of financial aspect, it’s a big challenge to make the game popular in the country,” said M A Bari adding that “people’s will is also very important in this regard.”

Many prefer to utilise their land for commercial purpose and not intend to understand that creating golf course can also be beneficial, M A Bari said urging more government cooperation for the development of country’s current status in the game.

Secretary General of Bangladesh Professional Golfers’ Association Brig Gen GM Quamrul Islam (Retd) told UNB, 

According to Brig Gen GM Quamrul Islam (Retd), Secretary General of Bangladesh Professional Golfers’ Association, Bangladesh people always perform better individual event and in a game, which need sticks to play. 
“We can do better in individual event than team game. We the Bangladeshi people always play better with sticks,” said Quamrul Islam when he was practicing at KGC. 

“Golf fulfills both the requirements earning Asian Title twice but no other game emerged as such title till date. It proves that, Bangladesh’s performs better than any other sports, he said to UNB.
There are about 20 to 25 bright talents in this game in our country who are not getting sufficient facilities or support whether it is physical, mental or financial, said the secretary general.

“Almost every week Bangladeshi golfers are playing international games, and they are playing well. But they are not being exposed to the people”, he said adding that media can play a greater role to popularize the game through following the game and keep people updating about all the developments with sincerity.

He also alleged that golf courses are being destroyed in the country. “We have lost courses like Cox’s Bazar and Ramna, this should not let to be continued”, he concluded. 

UNB team made a visit at the KGC before its hosting the AB Bank Bangladesh Open --a golf tournament of Asian Tour (AT) as the 4th time for Bangladesh hosting an event of the world’s 3rd major AT tournament. 

Bangladesh Open will kick off on May 9 with the format of ‘Stroke Play Over Round’ and 71 pars at the green garden where so far 143 golfers from 25 countries, including 34 professional and six amateurs of Bangladesh, are taking part with wildcards free entry.

Narayanganj, May 16 (UNB) – Stagnant water from incessant rainfalls in the surroundings of Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium (KSOAS) in Fatullah, commuters are facing difficulty in their daily movements while the stadium also becomes unfit for playing cricket.     

KSOAS is the only international venue for cricket in Narayanganj that hosted two Tests, 10 ODIs and four T20Is – apart from domestic cricket – since March 2006. Every year the stadium faces the problem of waterlogging during rainy season. 

The inside of the stadium is still safe with muddy appearances in some areas.

This correspondent made a visit to the KSOAS area and found that local cricket loving youths are fed-up with this scene each year as all sporting activities, including training, remain suspended during the rainy season due to waterlogging. 

“Cricketers of several clubs do their daily practice at the outer stadium and some matches of local clubs held here, but all of these got suspended due to stagnant rain water,” said a local resident.

“I used to play cricket here with my friends in every afternoon, but now it is not possible. So, cricketers like me became upset. As a sports lover and local cricketer, I’m expecting necessary steps from the authorities soon,” said Faysal, a local cricketer.

Another cricket buff of the locality Russell, “Our country has advanced far in cricket and we have big dream with it. But such an environment surrounding an international venue hurts us.  Concerned authority should give importance to this matter.”

KSOAS could not host the tour match of Australia in August 2017 as it was inundated with contaminated water after rain that time.
 

Dhaka, May 8 (UNB) – Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has become Bangladesh’s most popular feed on social media site Twitter.

BCB has garnered more than two million followers on Twitter platform taking it far ahead of other popular Twitter accounts in the country.

Bangladesh’s cricket controller on Tuesday in Tweet feed says, “@BCBtigers has reached 2M followers on twitter! The highest audience in Bangladesh! Congratulations to all fans and followers!”

According to BCB page statistics, so far 2.01 million viewers are following it while it has twitted 22.5 thousand posts since joining the social media platform in June 2011.

The countries other top twitting accounts are Shakib Al Hasan (@Sah75official) with 1.39 million followers, Prothom Alo (@ProthomAlo) with 1.23 million followers and Mushfiqur Rahim (@mushfiqur15) with 98.5 followers.

Twitter is an online news and social networking service on which users post and interacts with short messages known as tweets.

Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams created Twitter in San Francisco, USA, in March 2006 and it was launched in July the same year. “Followers” refer to the number of people that react to an account.

Dhaka, July 29 (UNB) - Bangladesh wrapped up a successful campaign of 2-1 win in an ODI series against host West Indies, which ended at Warner Park, Basseterre in St Kitts on July 28. It was a fine turnaround after the disastrous 0-2 Test series loss against the host side earlier this month.   

Bangladesh got an 18-run win in the 3rd game putting up 301/6, a high-scoring one on Windies soil, and the Windies were then in hot pursuit before stopping at 283/6.

Bangladesh had taken the lead in the series with a comfortable 48-run win in the first game while the Windies bounced back, winning the second game by three runs in a last-over thriller, making the 3rd game as series decider.

In the first game Bangladesh scored 279 for 4 in 50 overs and restricted Windies at 231 for 9 in 50 overs. The visitors finished at 268 for 6 in 50 overs, in reply to Windies 271 for all in 49.3 overs in the second game, both at Providence Stadium in Guyana.

The highest run-getter [6305 runs in ODI, 4049 in Test and 1433 in T20I] for Bangladesh in all format of international cricket, opener Tamim Iqbal was outstanding throughout the series with 287 [130*, 54 and 103] from three games.

Player of the series Tamim has taken his century tally in ODIs to 11, which is the most in numbers among Bangladesh players.  

“I think the patience that I showed in the first, second and third match makes me happy as it proved that my hard work paid off,” said Tamim after the series, referring to balls he faced 160, 85 and 124 balls in the three innings. He was adjudged man of the match twice -- in the first and third games – of the series.   

The talismanic all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan also had a good series with scores of 190 [97, 56 and 37], and two wickets in the second game. He played 121, 72 and 44 balls in three innings. 

Tamim and Shakib shared a world record of highest partnership aggregation in a three-match ODI series in a successive wicket with 385 in the second wicket, which included Bangladesh’s 2nd highest ODI partnership of 207 came from off 43 overs in the first game before 97 off 24.3 overs and 81 off 16 overs in the second and third games.

Among other experienced Bangladesh players dependable Mahmudullah Riyad [49-ball 67* in the 3rd game] and a consistent performer Mushfiqur Rahim [rapid 11-ball 30 in the first game and a 67-ball 68 in the second] played much sounded innings with bat in the series.

Thanks to Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s luck winning the toss in all three games of the series -- elected bat, bowl and bat -- and an innings of 25-ball 36 that included four boundaries -- of them three successive in 42nd over off  Windies skipper Jason Holder -- and one six in the 3rd game.

Mashrafe was the series topper in terms of wickets, with seven including 4/37 in the first match, while his fellow pace-man Mustafizur Rahman was other Bangladesh’s best bowler with six including 2/35 in the first game in the Caribbean.

Despite won the series, Bangladesh have lost one rating point in the ICC ODI Team Ranking, but the 7th place of the Tigers, achieved in 2015, is remained intact after the loss of the rating point.

However, Bangladesh started three-match ODI series having 93 rating points and now on 92 for their one defeat against their 9th placed West Indies with the rating points of 70.  Bangladesh had a good chance to improve their rating points to 95 had they won the ODI series 3-0.

But Tamim, Shakib and Mahmudullah moved up their spots in the ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings for batsmen, updated on July 28.

Tamim advanced four steps to get 13th spot while Shakib three places to 26th and gained four positions to get to number 38th. 

Among bowlers, Mashrafe and Mustafiz advanced in the Player Rankings. Mashrafe gained eight spots to be joint 19th with Matt Henry of New Zealand and Mustafiz the number 17 spot, a gain of two spots.

Meanwhile, Shakib lost three spots in the bowlers’ table, but remained the top-ranked ODI all-rounder.

Completing third ODI series win against West Indies, Bangladesh got an ODI series victory after around a two-year break. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s men last got a series win in this format against Afghanistan at home in September 2016.

Bangladesh first got a series win  3-0 on a West Indies tour in July 2009 and a 3-2 win at home in November 2012.

Among their 31 ODI encounters, Bangladesh registered nine victories against 20 losses while two matches had seen no results. 

Bothe side will play a three-match T20I series will be held on July 31, August 4 and 5.

Dhaka, July 26 (UNB) - Having been kept alive by a special initiative of Bangladesh Shilapakala Academy, the fledgling discipline of acrobatics in the country may finally be set to take flight.

 
The budding acrobats of Bangladesh were left high and dry in the early 2000s as funding dried up for the nurture and development of this unique discipline that combines elements of artistry and athleticism.

In time all forms of financial (private and public) and technical (training programs, facilities) support were withdrawn, rendering wasted the years of work and training dedicated towards developing themselves as acrobats.

It also left their futures uncertain.

That is when the BSA stepped in to lend the acrobats, who have always been regarded more as performing artists than athletes here, a lifeline. Today they can be said to have been vindicated in the test of time.

Bangladesh’s first Acrobatic Training Center was established in Rajbari under the management of BSA in 1994. At the same time, a core group of acrobats was formed to train at the ATC under the tutelage of a Korean.

Liaquat Ali Lucky, presently Director General of BSA said “After the completion of the Fine and Performing Art Training Project in 2000, the group was forced to discontinue their training, not to mention any exhibition shows they arranged, due to the lack of funds.”

But after years of neglect, in 2011 BSA revived the acrobatic team of Rajbari Acrobatic Training Center, forming an adult group of acrobats, performing under the banner of 'Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Acrobatic troupe'.

“In the first phase of 2012, a number of exhibitions and two acrobatics workshops were organized,” the Shilpakala Academy boss said.

The first workshop was held at the revived Acrobatic Training Center, Rajbari with the participation of 50 children. A second such workshop with the participation of 72 children was held at the National Gallery Centre of BSA in Dhaka.

In further activity, the Department of Theatre and Film at BSA organised 93 exhibitions for the troupe covering all 64 districts of the country, in 2013-14 (the BSA annual calendar corresponds to the government’s July 1-June 30 fiscal).  Five workshops were also organized, in Dhaka and some other districts.

“The Shilpakala Academy took these positive steps to keep them on track when the artists were forced to leave this profession and take jobs in different shops or factories for lack of allocation in the budget,” BSA DG said.

Lucky also said “The academy allocated some money from its own funds to keep the acrobats active in their discipline. They were given some remuneration for training and workshops. And this effort has helped us protect acrobatics from extinction.”

BSA officials said that in 2015-2016 the Acrobatic Exhibition continued being held across the country while seven new artists were added to the BSA Acrobatic Group on merit. This was crucial as it meant the torch could now be passed on to another generation. Add the feedback the squad has received throughout the country during its exhibitions portends a bright future. 

A respectable number of exhibitions, 79, were completed in the district and upazila levels throughout Bangladesh in 2015-16. But it was really last year, down in the books as 2016-17, that the potential of acrobatics as a popular discipline really blossomed.

Officials of the academy said that the BSA Acrobatics troupe organized nearly three hundred exhibitions throughout the length and breadth of Bangladesh in 2016-17, which were very well appreciated and said to be inspiring for future acrobats. 

“Recently 20 children went to China for higher acrobatic training. Ten artists returning from China with higher training are now performing while the remaining 10 are taking training. So there is no more fear of acrobatics facing extinction, or acrobats becoming useless in Bangladesh anymore,” the DG relayed.

Yet that bright future everyone hopes for may depend on to what extent it chooses to embrace its athletic side in Bangladesh, particularly the competitive fervour. The world over, acrobats find their ultimate fulfilment in competing for their event at the Olympic Games, where acrobatics is a popular and regular fixture The budding acrobats of Bangladesh will do well to embrace that dream.