Booters leave today for Nehru Cup

Syed Nayeemuddin returns to his homeland with a completely different role he had played in the past.
The former Indian international and coach, who guided India to win the SAFF Football Championship twice including the previous title in 2005, will be up against his home team when he leads Bangladesh in the five-nation Nehru Cup which kicks off on Saturday.
Bangladesh football team will fly for New Delhi today without any particular target, as said by Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president SA Sultan in yesterday's press conference at the BFF Bhaban.
"We have no target in the two tournaments," said Sultan referring to the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, where the BFF is sending a second-string national team.
"We want to finish with honour in the two events and hope to build a good team for the SAFF Championship," Sultan told.
Bangladesh play pre-tournament favourites Syria in their opener before meeting India, Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan in the league matches.
Nayeemuddin, showing no emotion about returning to India and the prospect of facing a team he had built before being relieved of charge, said 'fighting all the way' is his target apart from improving day by day.
Having picked up his side just over two weeks earlier, the preparation at BKSP was hampered by heavy showers and unplayable conditions. And the coach feels lack of combination and understanding might be their main worry in the prestigious tournament.
"That's certainly a drawback. I would have liked to see the players involved in practice matches, but you can't fight against the nature, we have to overcome this limitation in the future.
"You have to groom the players properly. Saudi Arabia sent their youth teams to Brazil for training. Moroccan youngsters visits Holland, it's like an investment, which we don't have here," he said adding that sponsors must come forward to stand beside the national teams.
"My motto is to fight and fight. Those who represent Bangladesh have the motivation to do that and I have told them not to fear whatever opponents they are facing. We don't want lose before the match begins," told Nayeemuddin.
"You can be successful if you play as a team and implement your abilities. We may win we may lose but the focus would be to play the level best.
"Also, without discipline, success is impossible. So I will try my best to maintain that during the trip."
Responding to the strong criticism of BFF's decision to send two national teams to different tournaments, Nayeemuddin said there was little difference between the two sides.
"Both teams are equally strong and both are Bangladesh national teams. The level of motivation is similar for players. There is no use drawing a line between the two," Nayeem added.
First time chosen to lead the national team, Abahani centre-back Nazrul Islam said that the main advantage of the team could be playing the tournament just after the professional football league.
"We come straight from the field after the six-month long B. League and the fitness level is good," said Nazrul, the steadiest performer of the season.
"In the national camp, the coach went step by step. He felt that as we have played a lot of football, our muscles were weaker and he initially emphasised on power training before we began to work with the ball," he said.
Like the coach, the new captain also felt the lack of match practice.
"We have a number of newcomers. It would be better if we could play a few matches," added Nazrul whose side played just one match at BKSP against the local youth team.
The team for Merdeka Cup, under coach Hasanuzzaman Babloo, will leave for Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: Biplab Bhattachariya, Ziaur Rahman Zia, Mamun Khan: defenders: Feroz Mahmud Titu, Atiqur Rahman Mishu, Rajani Kanta Barman, Nazrul Islam, Ariful Islam, SM Rajib, Mofazzal Hossain Saikat; midfielders: Mehdi Hassan Ujjal, Arman Aziz, Abul Hossain, Zahid Hossain, Zahed Parvez, Akramuzzaman Liton; forwards: Alfaz Ahmed, Mohammed Robin and Zahid Hassan Emily.
OFFICIALS: Shafiqul Islam (team leader), Mojammel Haque Mukta (manager), Syed Nayeemuddin (coach), Golam Jilani (assistant coach), Debashis Chowdhury (physician).