Sports
Naveed Nawaz compares Junior cricket structure of Bangladesh with Sri Lanka
by Reemus Fernando
Former Sri Lanka national player Naveed Nawaz has been involved in coaching Under-19 national players for more than a decade now. Some of the players who were under him when he was the coach of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team are now competing in the ICC T20 World Cup. In Bangladesh, he had immense success when the team he coached went on to become the Youth World Cup champions at the last edition. Some of the players he coached in that team too have gone on to represent the country at the senior national level. His success with the Bangladesh Under-19 team has earned him accolades and a worthy job extension beyond the upcoming Youth World Cup. However, Nawaz is not with the Bangladesh Under-19 team currently touring Sri Lanka. He is in Australia attending to a family matter but is confident that his charges will be well looked after by his staff during the five-match series starting on Friday.
In an interview with The Island, the former Sri Lanka Under-19 coach compared and contrasted the challenges in the two countries where junior players come from two different structures.
“If you compare the Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi Under-19 systems the player turn out in the Bangladesh Under-19 programme is much less than the Sri Lankan Under-19 programme. Due to the strong school cricket structure in Sri Lanka, there is a good player turnout and a bigger pool of players to select from. In Bangladesh, the numbers are lesser than that. The number of players we pick the Under-19 team from is much less. I would consider it as a disadvantage because sometimes you are restricted to a lesser number of players. Some challengers like the variety of players that you are looking for are really not there. But due to the strong Club Cricket system in Bangladesh and also the Provincial Cricket system in Bangladesh a lot of players at a very early age get exposed to playing First and Second Division cricket. They play a lot of cricket with senior players. That is a great experience. Obviously, that is an advantage when you are playing against an Under-19 team. Nevertheless, any Under-19 system is a difficult area to work with because the continuation of the player pool is not there. At Under-19 level we get new players coming in every two years. It is not that you build a certain squad and you get an opportunity to work with them until they grow and mature into an international cricketer. Every two years you are turning the squad around and get fresh players coming into the squad. You are basically repeating a programme every two years
Asked what impact the Youth World Cup victory by Bangladesh Under-19 had on his coaching career he had this to say. “The Youth World Cup win had a massive impact on me personally. The first thing for me was the reality that the programme that I put across for the two-year period had worked really well and the players have responded well to the programme which was satisfying. The programme had been running for two years. It was not only winning a World Cup (which was satisfying), but also for a team from Bangladesh to do really well in England as well as New Zealand. I think that was the main thing that paved the way for us to move on and win a World Cup in South Africa. It was a massive achievement for an Asian team. It is not like winning a World Cup in the subcontinent. Our players played really well, batted and bowled exceptionally well competing against the best cricketing systems in the world on fast bouncy wickets in South Africa. The World Cup win had a massive impact on my reputation as a coach.”
In comparison to the Sri Lanka Under-19 team who commenced training recently, the Bangladesh Under-19 tram had spent a year together though their training had been inconsistent due to the Covid 19 pandemic. “We started training in October 2020. But training could not continue regularly. Some of our camps got disrupted due to lockdowns and Covid 19 outbreak and various issues due to the pandemic. There were various tours planned by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. But they got cancelled.
“Training got affected in a massive way. Almost three or four of our camps got disrupted due to the Covid 19 outbreak and lockdowns in Bangladesh. BCB had planned tours to Pakistan and England. Both got cancelled. They could not be rescheduled due to worldwide issues from travel issues to biosecurity issues. Like any other country. It was a big blow,” said Nawaz commenting on the impact the Covid 19 pandemic had on the team’s preparation for the Youth World Cup.
North Korea has held the Pyongyang International Marathon for the first time in six years, welcoming some 200 foreign runners to the streets of the reclusive country’s capital.
The marathon, which was launched in 1981, took place annually in April to celebrate the birth of its founding leader Kim Il Sung.
Before Sunday’s marathon, the race was last held in 2019, wherein 950 foreigners participated. North Korea sealed itself off the following year, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
North Korea has been slow to reopen since, allowing only Russian tourists into its capital since last year.
Runners have had to enter the country as part of an organised tour group, as was the case before the pandemic.
Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel agency listed as an “exclusive partner” on the event website, offers six-day marathon tours at 2,195 euros ($2,406) including flights to and from Beijing.
“The Pyongyang Marathon is an extremely unique experience as it provides an opportunity to interact with locals,” the agency wrote on its website.
Sunday’s marathon route took participants past landmarks across the city, including the Kim Il Sung stadium, the Arch of Triumph built to commemorate Kim Il Sung’s role in resisting Japanese rule, and the Mirae Future Scientists’ Street said to be a residential district for scientists and engineers.
Pictures online show the stadium – where runners start and finish their race – filled with spectators, many of them cheering and waving gold-coloured paper flags.
Pak Kum Dong, a North Korean runner, told Reuters news agency: “The eyes of our people on me helped me to bear the difficulties whenever I feel tired.”
There is no publicly available information on race results.
North Korea had only statred to scale back Covid-19 restrictions in the middle of 2023.
In Feburary, it allowed some Western tourists into the remote, eastern city Rason, but suspended those tours just weeks after.
[BBC]
Noor Ahmad, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left-arm wristspinner, continues to head the Purple Cap table with ten wickets from four games. His spell of 4 for 18 in CSK’s first game against MI, remains his best so far.
DC’s Mitchell Starc who picked up his maiden five-for in T20s, against SRH remains second on the list with nine wickets in three games.
GT’s Mohammed Siraj equalled Starc’s tally on Sunday night with his own IPL best, albeit he has played four games to Starc’s three. Siraj picked up 4 for 17 against SRH to hand them their four successive loss, and was named the Player of the Match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered another batting malfunction, this time on a slow, black-soil surface at home, crashing to their fourth successive defeat in IPL 2025. Having lost Travishek in the powerplay, SRH waited until the 13th over to see the first six of the innings, and managed only one more after that Mohammad Siraj caused irreparable damage right from the start, ending with his career-best IPL figures of 4 for 17.
Pat Cummins’ cameo (22* off nine balls) and then his dismissal of Jos Buttler for a duck in Gujarat Titans’ (GT) chase of 153 gave SRH some hope, but that faded away once Washington Sundar clattered 23 off nine balls in the powerplay. Earlier in the day, GT didn’t need Washington with the ball, but his attacking enterprise at No. 4 settled their chase on a slow pitch. Washington fell agonisingly short of a maiden IPL half-century, but his captain Shubman Gill ushered GT home, with an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls, along with Sherfane Rutherford.
Siraj had sparked the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to life when he gave Travis Head a send-off in Adelaide last December. Four months on, Siraj was bowling to Head for the first time in T20s, and the battle lasted just five balls. After Head scored two fours off Siraj, the fast bowler struck with his trademark wobble-seam delivery, having him chip a catch to midwicket for 8.
Abhishek Sharma hit four fours before Siraj had him miscuing a catch to mid-on in his third over of the powerplay. It was Siraj’s 100th wicket in the IPL and sixth in the powerplay, the most by a bowler in that phase so far this season, with an economy rate of 6.27.
Siraj then returned in the death to york both Aniket Verma, the last recognised batter for SRH, and Simarjeet Singh, their Impact Player.
With both Head and Abhishek gone early,Rashid Khan, who was coming into this game on the back of figures of 4-0-54-0, could afford to ease himself in. He started fairly well by giving away just 10 runs in his first two overs, but when he erred in length, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klassen dispatched him to the fence. Rashid finished with 4-0-31-0, going wicketless for a third successive game, and with tournament figures of 1 for 143 in 14 overs at an economy rate of 10.21
Left-arm fingerspinner Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, on the other hand, showed remarkable control over his length and variations. He claimed the big wicket of Klaasen by knocking him over with a quick dart, which skidded off the pitch, for 27 off 19 balls. Sai Kishore also had Reddy holing out for 31 off 34 balls and finished with 4-0-24-2.
That SRH passed 150 was down to Cummins’ late blows. He was the only SRH batter in the top eight to have a strike rate of over 160.
It appeared like GT had handed a franchise debut to Washington to primarily match his offspin up with SRH’s left-hander heavy top order. But with Siraj dominating the powerplay and Sai Kishore taking care of the middle overs, GT ended up not using his offspin.
Washington then walked out to bat at No. 4 after his childhood friend B Sai Sudarshan and Buttler fell cheaply in successive overs. Washington took advantage of the last over of the powerplay, smoking Simarjeet for two sixes and two fours. It provided a throwback to Washington of 2016, when he opened the batting, alongside Abhinav Mukund, in the TNPL and showed the intent to hit over the top. Just like that, Washington dumped SRH’s Impact Player out of the attack.
Washington continued to attack even after that. When the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis darted one on the stumps with his right hand, Washington manufactured swinging room and laced him over extra-cover for four. Washington seemed set for a fifty until he holed out one shy of the landmark in the 14th over.
Gill, who had already crossed 50 by that point, finished the job along with Rutherford, who hit an unbeaten 35 off 16 balls.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 153 for 3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61*, Washington Sundar 49, Sherfaine Rutherford 35*; Mohammed Shami 2-28, Pat Cumminss 1-26) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 152 for 8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 18, Ishan Krishan 17, Nitish Kumar Reddy 31, Heinrich Klassen 27, Aniket Verma 18,Pat Cummins 22*; Mohammed Siraj 4-17, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore 2-24, Prasidh Krishna 2-25)by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
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