Tamil steals PCL auction
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Opener Tamim Iqbal created a sensation at the players’ auction for the first ever Port-city Cricket League when he was bagged for a whopping Tk 7.70 lakh per match by Chittagong Abahani on Saturday.
Abahani bid 25 times more than his base price of Tk 30,000 a match to win a four-way battle to rope in Tamim, who is now assured of at least Tk 23.10 lakh from the first three group matches.
If Abahani advance to semi-final and final and Tamim plays both the matches he will pocket Tk 38.50 lakh in less than week, something which will make him the highest paid Bangladeshi player in any domestic competition.
The price also is believed to be good enough to bury his frustration for not getting a team in the Indian Primer League. Tamim was one of the four Bangladeshi players auctioned for the IPL this year, but no team had shown any interest in him.
‘Yes, I was certainly disappointed for not getting a team in the IPL. But I never expected the people from Chittagong will come forward to compensate me in this way,’ said a surprised Tamim over phone after the auction.
At least four teams – Chittagong Abahani, Chittagong Mohammedan, Dada Warriors and Brothers Union – were in a race to sign Tamim, who lives yards away from tournament venue Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium.
Mohammedan withdrew themselves after bidding Tk 4.50 lakh but the other two teams fought till the end. His price rose so meteorically that it was not possible to determine who the nearest rivals of Abahani at the auction were.
‘We are champions of Chittagong Premier League for the last two years. Naturally we would love to win the first ever PCL also and that’s why we were desperate to get Tamim. He is the local hero, so we knew if we could sign him we will get the support of the entire city,’ said Chittagong Abahani official Syed Sirajul Islam.
Such was Abahani’s desperation to sign Tamim that they almost spent their entire budget on him. The other five players they have signed will get Tk 1 lakh collectively.
Former Under-19 captain Sohrawardi Shuvo surprisingly emerged as the second most expensive player at the auction with Pirates of Chittagong bagging him for Tk 1.70 lakh. Two other players – Junaed Siddique and Abdur Razzak – were also sold at more than six-digit figures.
Dada Sports roped in Junaed at the cost of Tk 1.31 lakh while Brothers Union got the signature of Razzak for Tk 1.10 lakh. Among the other national players, Naeem Islam was sold at Tk 70,000, Imrul Kayes Tk 68,000 and Merab Hossain Jr Tk 68,000.
Arafat Sunny and Elias Sunny, who never played for the national team, were each sold at Tk 75,000. Among the local players, who were put in the B category with a base price of Tk 8,000, Rezaul Karim got the highest price of Tk 62,000.
The auction, however, was not a pleasing experience for everyone. Former national opener Javed Omar did not find a team in the main auction and was later sold at his base price of Tk 8,000 to Chittagong Mohammedan.
Shamsur Rahman, the highest scorer in the just-concluded Dhaka Premier League, was also sold at his base price of Tk 15,000 to Ispahani, who spent less money than any other sides.
The Chittagong Divisional Commissioner, MAN Siddique, inaugurated the auction at the heavily decorated auditorium of Chittagong Club with journalists Munni Saha and JI Mamum conducting the proceedings.
The cash-rich Twenty20 competition, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, will be held in Chittagong from May 2 to 9.

Hosts face Cambodia today

Bangladesh skipper Aminul (R) shakes hands with Cambodian captain Kim Chanbunrith while Myamar skipper Myo Min Tun (L) and Macau skipper Geofredo De Sousa look on during the official press meet of the AFC Challenge Cup Group A qualifiers on Saturday.

Bangla-desh will be wary of any complacency when they take on Cambodia in the second match of the AFC Challenge Cup Group A qualifying round at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today at 6:00pm.
In their two previous meetings with Cambodia, Bangladesh had won 2-1 in the inaugural AFC Challenge Cup in 2006 and drawn 1-1 in Nehru Cup in 2007. Alfaz Ahmed and Zahid Hasan Emily scored for Bangladesh while Rithy Chan reduced the margin for the Cambodians on the first occasion. In the Nehru Cup match, Bangladesh were leading 1-0 until the 89th minute but Keo Kosal restored parity in the 90th minute taking the match away from Bangladesh’s grip.
Bangladesh coach Dido expressed dissatisfaction with his preparations at the official press conference on Saturday. ‘Frankly speaking, I could not make an ideal preparation, but I have to move ahead with what I have, the four weeks of preparation was too inadequate with a series of injuries to key players,’ said Dido.
The Brazilian urged the supporters to cheer on the team. ‘My message is, you stay behind the national team, it is very important for progress,’ opined Dido.
Dido said he has worked on the weakness of Bangladesh players assembling in the same place forgetting their positions. ‘Though the time was not enough but I have tried to work on it, and believe that improvement is there, I have also talked with the players about losing the rhythm in the dying minutes, it is a physical weakness and can be overcome with fitness, ’ said the Brazilian.
Dido ruled out any pressure on the team. ‘I don’t have any pressure and so are my players, I have tried to get rid of the word “pressure”, I believe in hard work and am not focussed on any opponents, I will try to win with the best performance,’ said Dido.
Dido clarified the position of forward Emily and midfielder Zahid. ‘The doctors have cleared them to play and it is up to me whether I play them or not, I hope that they will be playing as without them, I may not be able to do something that I was supposed to do,’ said the coach.
Dido was cautious about his tactics in the first match. ‘I have still to decide on my strategy, what I know is that attack is the best form of defence and I will to the same not only against Cambodia but also against all other opponents,’ Dido added.
Bangladesh skipper Aminul assured of giving more than hundred per cent. ‘The equation is very simple, we have to win all the three matches to win the group – the first is the quarter-final, the second is the semi-final and the third is the final. We will try our best to win all the three,’ said the reliable goalkeeper.
Bangladesh meet Myanmar on Tuesday and Macau on Thursday.

Ojha puts Mumbai in a spin

Cheerleaders entertain during a match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians in the IPL Twenty20 at The Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban on Saturday.

A spinning masterclass from Pragyan Ojha and disciplined back-up from Venugopal Rao ensured Deccan Chargers consolidated their position at the top of the Indian Premier League table with a 12-run victory over Mumbai Indians here on Saturday.
Chasing 169, Mumbai looked destined for victory when they entered the final 10 overs of their innings needing 85 to win with nine wickets in hand and star batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and JP Duminy at the crease.
But Ojha’s 3-21 swung the match as he had Tendulkar caught at short extra cover by Herschelle Gibbs for 36, then removed Shikhar Dhawan and Duminy (47) in consecutive overs.
‘I was nervous coming into the match, but I know that if I work hard I can do it, and at the end of the day I did it for my team,’ said Ojha.
Fellow spinner Rao squeezed the batsmen at the other end, allowing just 21 runs from his first three overs as Mumbai managed a meagre 24 runs in the five overs after the ‘strategy break’.
Dwayne Bravo and Harbhajan Singh led spirited resistance, but when Fidel Edwards removed fellow West Indian Bravo for 21, Mumbai’s fate was sealed and they ended their innings on 156-7.
An opening stand of 63 between Adam Gilchrist and Gibbs set Chargers up for a big total after they won the toss and elected to bat under sunny Kingsmead skies.
Even after Gilchrist had fallen for 35 to the bowling of Bravo, Gibbs continued the assault on Mumbai’s bowlers with Dwayne Smith as Deccan reached 124-1 in the 13th over. But when Smith was bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya for 35, his dismissal instigated a collapse and none of the batsmen who followed reached double figures.
Top scorer Gibbs was run out for a feisty 58 as Deccan made 168-8 in 20 overs.

Iran urges US to change
‘domineering methods’
Iran called on the United States on Saturday to change its ‘domineering methods’ after the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, warned of ‘very tough’ sanctions if dialogue on Iran’s nuclear drive fails.
‘The era of threats and political pressure is over and we believe in resolving issues through dialogue and interaction,’ government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.
‘What we are talking about is a real change in their behaviour and they should change their domineering methods,’ he added.
In testimony to Congress on Wednesday, Hillary said Washington supported efforts by world powers to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue diplomatically.
‘But we are also laying the groundwork for the kind of very tough, I think you said crippling, sanctions that might be necessary in the event that our offers are either rejected or the process is inconclusive or unsuccessful.’
On Friday, Iran’s influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned Hillary that she risked undermining the new prospects for dialogue between Tehran and Washington.
‘Hillary says ‘we are ready for talks but beside that we prepare for paralysing sanctions against Iran’,’ Rafsanjani said.
‘What can they expect of us when such things are said?... They’d better not repeat these comments so the atmosphere existing in Iran today for talks is not ruined.’
Hillary’s comments came the same day that chief nuclear negotiator Said Jalili said that Iran was ready for a ‘‘constructive dialogue’ with world powers.
The five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany have been seeking to persuade Iran to accept a package of political and economic incentives in return for ending its efforts to master the nuclear fuel cycle.
Western governments fear that Iran’s nuclear programme is cover for a drive for a bomb, something Tehran strongly denies.

Khamenei accuses US, Israel over Iraq bombings
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed Israel and the United States on Saturday for persistent violence in Iraq after two suicide attacks left scores of Iranian pilgrims dead.
‘The American and Israeli intelligence apparatuses are the number-one accused... for the spread of the poisonous seeds of terrorism in Iraq,’ Khamenei said in a message of condolence to the victims’ families broadcast on state television.
‘Those evil brains and sinful hands that established this blind, unbridled terrorism in Iraq should know that this fire will end up burning them,’ the Iranian leader added.
Twenty Iranian pilgrims were among at least 58 people killed when two women suicide bombers attacked a Shia shrine in Baghdad on Friday. Some 80 Iranians were among the 125 people wounded.
Another 52 Iranian pilgrims were among at least 56 people killed in a suicide attack on a roadside restaurant in Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, the previous day.

People set to suffer more

with no chances of rain Two women cross the parched and cracked riverbed at Gabtali in Dhaka on Saturday to fetch water from afar as drinking water becomes scarce amid frequent power outages and in the absence of rain.

People are likely to suffer more in the sweltering heat as meteorologists on Saturday said the heat wave now sweeping over a half of the country might continue for a couple of days.
In the absence of rain, a draught-like situation coupled with a decline in the groundwater level has also put farmers in trouble as they could not irrigate the cropland.
A moderate heat wave is sweeping over Dhaka and other districts and a mild-to-moderate wave is blowing over Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions and the regions of Mymensingh and other districts, meteorologist Farah Deeba told New Age on Saturday.
‘The heat wave may continue for a few more days as there are very little chances of rain,’ she said.
Ainun Nishat, country director of the IUCN-The World Conservation Union, said the frequency of heat wave is likely to increase for lack of rainfall resulting from climate change.
‘A number of thunderstorms are likely to blow over the country during the period,’ he said.
Ekabbar Ali, a farmer at Naohata of Paba in Rajshahi, said jute plants on his 12 bighas of land and maize on six bighas were dying, according to a Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha report.
‘We have become helpless as other crops are also dying,’ said another farmer, Bodiuzzaman, of Dadpur.
Shah Mohammad Ullah, a professor of the soil, water and environment department in Dhaka University, also said the heat wave might damage the crops.
‘The country’s soil usually keeps 33 per cent of water. The ongoing heat wave may reduce the moisture in the ground for paddy could become waste,’ he said.
Vegetables require a huge amount of water and if the farmers fail irrigate the land, the plants will not survive, he said.
He feared farmers might fall into a serious financial crisis if such a weather would continue for some more days.
Physicians, meanwhile, warned that people might suffer from high blood pressure and heart ailments because of the heat wave.
The day’s highest temperature, 41.6 degree Celsius, was recorded in Jessore.
Physicians and hospitals sources said extreme summer heat was causing not only diarrhoea, but also heat stroke, cramps, dehydration, itching and jaundice.
Thousands of people, especially children and the aged, have contracted diarrhoea, pneumonia and other viral diseases, according to the disease control room of the Directorate General of Health Services.
About 2,000 diarrhoeal patients are admitted to hospital on an average every day with a mortality rate ranging between one and five, according to the data provided by the control room.
The control room, however, has no data on pneumonia, jaundice and other viral diseases although medical experts have noticed an increased prevalence of such heat-related ailments across the country in a week.
Attendance in schools dropped significantly with some of the schools having nearly 50 per cent of the students absent because of illness.
According to the health services control room and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh, at least 18 people died and more than 62,148 diarrhoea patients were admitted to hospital across the country in a month.
Eight hundred and ninety-seven people in and around Dhaka were admitted to the ICDDR,B hospital at Mohakhali with diarrhoea till 8:00am Saturday and the number is feared to cross a thousand by the end of the day, said doctors at the short stay unit of the ICDDR,B.

Half of the 74 privatised

SoEs closed down

A closed state-owned jute mills.

Almost half of the 74 state-owned enterprises divested in the past were closed down that raised question about the quality of ‘so called privatisation’.
A total of 74 state-owned enterprises belong to textiles, jute, manufacturing, chemicals, food, leather and banking sector were sold out since the establishment of the Privatisation Board in 1993 and thereafter the Privatization Commission in 2000.
Of them, 54 were divested through outright sale and 20 through off-loading of shares by suggestion of the lending agencies especially the World Bank.
Among the privatised enterprises, which are still in business limp badly, they said.
Serious questions can be raised about the privatisation process itself, said Bangladesh Enterprise Institute president Farooq Sobhan. He suggested changes to the existing privatisation process.
Industries minister Dilip Barua, has, however, favoured a provision to halt privatisation of the state-run entities.
He made his intention clear while unveiling the draft of the new industrial policy on Saturday at local hotel.
’Many privatised factories remain inoperative or non-functional under new ownership. In some cases, land is sold off after take-over,’ he said.
Apart from 74 SOEs, some 24 SoEs have already been listed by the commissions to get them disposed off under a World Bank’s multi million ‘bank modernisation and enterprise growth’ project.
Tenders have already been called for three SoEs.
Around 305 state owned enterprises comprising industrial, commercial and financial institutions were put under public ownership in 1974-75.
The size of the public sector enterprises have reduced considerably after the paradigm shift in the government’s economic policy towards privatisation.
However, in name of privatisation successive governments sold out many viable SoEs at very cheap rate, said an official of the Bangladesh Forest Industries and Development Corporation.
He said Wood Treating Plant at Daulatpur in Khulna was divested to private entrepreneur although the organisation was running on break event and employed more than 200 workers.
A relative of the than privatisation commission chairman purchase the plant and curtailed more than 150 workers.
The abortive attempt to privatise Rupali Bank, country’s fourth largest commercial bank, has added further burden on the government exchequer, said the finance ministry officials.
The three-year long unsuccessful bargaining with A Saudi prince deteriorated the financial position of the loss making bank that was put on sale in 2005.