e_Paper, Monday, May 8, 2017

Sports 19
DT
MONDAY, MAY 8, 2017
Volleyball Federation promises more
activities for men, women
• Shishir Hoque
Following almost eight long years,
the Bangladesh Volleyball Federation
has seriously taken initiatives
to form the national women’s team
as the two-day long trial got underway
at Dhaka Volleyball Stadium in
Paltan yesterday.
With the aim of participating and
winning a medal in the upcoming
South Asian Games, the volleyball
federation is planning to arrange
long-term residential training camp
for the national women’s team for
the first time in several years.
Bangladesh women’s team’s last
activity took place three years ago
during the Asian Senior Central
Zone Tournament in Nepal. The
team were drafted through an open
trial without any long-term camp.
Prior to that, the trial and camp
were held in 2009 ahead of the
2010 SA Games. Later however, the
team didn’t take part in the event.
Due to lack of initiatives, activities
and quality, the national
women’s volleyball side also didn’t
MARCEL BSJC MEDIA CUP FOOTBALL
Winning start for Dhaka
Tribune on opening day
• Tribune Report
Dhaka Tribune made a flying start
in the Marcel-BSJC Media Cup
Football Tournament with a convincing
4-0 victory over ATN Bangla
at M Mansur Ali National Handball
Stadium yesterday.
It was the joint highest margin of
victory among the six matches played
on the opening day of the week-long
tournament. Fazley Rabbi Moon netted
one for Dhaka Tribune and was
participate in the 2016 SA Games in
India. The federation, for the first
time, is targeting a two-year long
camp and continuous activity of
the women’s team so that they can
show their worth in south Asia.
A total of 55 female players, including
many from the last national
team, joined the open trial yesterday,
informed federation joint
secretary Mohammad Fazle Rabbi
but women’s volleyball committee
secretary Nibedita Das said the
number is around 80. The press release
on the other hand stated 85.
Nibedita informed that the participants
came from three service
teams - Bangladesh Police (seven),
BJMC and Ansar & VDP (14 each)
and different districts like Rajshahi,
Pabna, Khagrachari, Khulna, Chittagong
and Kishoreganj. Highest 15
players hail from Narayanganj.
Ifad Group has provided the federation
with a sum of Tk5,00,000
for the trial and preliminary stage
of training camp, informed Rabbi.
He also told Dhaka Tribune that
they will choose 20 players from
adjudged player of the match.
In the day’s other matches, The
Daily Star edged past Bonik Barta
1-0, Bangladesh Television defeated
Kaler Kantha 1-0, JagoNews24
outplayed Maasranga TV 3-0 while
Jamuna TV beat New Nation 4-0,
thanks to a hat-trick by Rashed.
Naya Diganta and RTV played out a
goalless draw in the last match.
A total of 24 media houses, split
into eight groups, are taking part in
the tournament. •
the trial and continue the camp for
as long as possible with a break for
Eid.
The federation is also seeking
funds from the National Sports
Council and Bangladesh Olympic
Association in order to continue
the camp for the long term.
“We didn’t have the national
women’s team. We are trying to arrange
a team. It’s really difficult to
form a women’s team, compared to
the men,’’ said Rabbi.
He added, “We have international
tournaments in India in November
and want to send the team
there in September. Our prime goal
regarding the women’s team is to
participate in the SA Games and
win a medal.”
Meanwhile, there has been no
activity of the men’s volleyball
team in the last six months since
their success in the Bangabandhu
Central Zone Tournament. Currently,
the national team members
are engaged in different service
teams where they work and train.
National captain Al Zabir is one of
Local coaches give tips during the
two-day long trial that got underway
yesterday at Dhaka Volleyball Stadium
(L) while Bangladesh volleyball team
captain Al Zabir is all smiles
SHISHIR HOQUE
them who works for Titas Gas and
plays for the club.
Zabir’s 13-year-long playing career
featured five different clubs
before he settled at Titas Club. He
has been captaining the national
team for the last two years.
Zabir said, “We played our previous
tournament in December last
year. Then there was no activity.
We don’t know what is our next
schedule. It’s sad that we have
been sitting idle. There are many
international tournaments every
year but we don’t even take part.
There might be reasons but we
players don’t know.”
In his defence, Rabbi said, “We
trained the senior team for three
years. We sent them to the World
Cup qualifiers, SA Games. Then
they became champion in the
Bangabandhu tournament. Now
we are trying to pick players from
the pipeline. We arranged training
for U-19 team and want to boost
them up. We are also preparing
U-16 and U-21 teams to build better
senior team in future.” •
Fazley Rabbi Moon of Dhaka Tribune collects the player of the match award
yesterday at M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium
COURTESY
BCCI agree to
Champions
Trophy
participation
• Reuters, New Delhi
India confirmed their participation
in next month’s Champions Trophy
in England and Wales yesterday
after initially delaying the
announcement of their squad over
a revenue sharing disagreement
with cricket’s governing body.
The dispute intensified when
India failed to submit a squad
for the one-day international
tournament by an April 25 deadline
after its cricket board (BCCI) was
unable to stall a new income model
being adopted by the International
Cricket Council.
“The Board unanimously
authorised the acting honorary
secretary of the BCCI to continue
negotiations with the ICC in the best
interest of the BCCI while keeping
its legal options open,” the BCCI said
after a special general meeting.
“The BCCI...unanimously
decided that the Indian cricket
team will participate in the
upcoming 2017 Champions Trophy.
“The all-India senior selection
meeting will be held [today], May
8, 2017, in New Delhi to pick the
team.”
At last month’s ICC meetings,
the BCCI was outvoted 13-1 in its
bid to halt the revised deal which
considerably slashes India’s share
from global events in the 2015-23
cycle. Unimpressed by the $293m
forecast, down from the $570m it
would have received under a 2014
arrangement, the BCCI responded
by refusing to name a squad for the
June 1-18 eight-team competition.
Acting BCCI secretary Amitabh
Choudhary will now continue to
negotiate with the world governing
body to get a bigger share of ICC
revenues during the next eightyear
cycle.
“The ICC welcomes the
unanimous decision from the
BCCI special general meeting
this morning to confirm the
participation of defending
champions India in next month’s
Champions Trophy,” the ICC said in
a statement to Reuters.
“The hundreds of millions of
cricket fans around the world
just want to see good cricket and
now we can all look forward to a
superb event in England and Wales
starting on 1 June.”
The option to boycott the
event by revoking the Members
Participation Agreement between
the ICC and the BCCI had been
gaining traction within the board
prior to yesterday’s meeting
despite a number of former players
opposing any withdrawal. •