Booters off to Nepal

Bangladesh football team will leave for Kathmandu today to play a practice match against Nepal Police on April 18.
The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has announced a 20-member squad for the tour, which has been arranged as part of the build up for the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers that begins in Dhaka on April 26.
Brazilian coach Edson Silva Dido picked up the squad from a preliminary list of 25. And out of the five not touring to the Himalayan Kingdom are prolific strikers Emily and Robin and winger Zahid, who have been left behind to nurse their injuries. Goalkeeper Himel has been asked to stay back and Brothers defender Ariful was dropped due to a lack of progress in his performance.
The absence of Emily and Robin would make the Bangladesh attack susceptible. But it will give the new striking pair of Mithun Chowdhury and Enamul Haq a chance to show their abilities.
Prior to the departure of the team, coach Dido said that even though the training camp for the Challenge Cup started four weeks ago, his boys have yet to make any noticeable progress.
"Four weeks of training is not enough for a national side when you want to change things completely and therefore we have not made any significant progress, but the players have started realising what I want from them now," said the Brazilian.
Dido also emphasised on the importance of playing a tour match as compared to a local match ahead of a tough international fixture.
"I preferred playing a tour match to a local match because the psychological pressures are different when you are travelling and playing. If you lose a match at home it has a pretty bad effect on the players and fans so it was better for us to play abroad", he said.
The booters will play the match against the police outfit after having just one day of practice in the Nepalese capital, which is situated at 4383 ft above the sea level and it seemed coach Dido was a bit apprehensive about the altitude.
"I don't know much about the opponents and I can't tell you whether we are going to win or lose, but it depends on how much the players can adopt to the conditions," Dido was quoted as saying.
Nepal Police finished runners-up in the AFC President's Cup in 2007 and defeated Bangladesh champions Abahani 4-0 in the same competition last year.
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is also trying to bring a team from Kolkata, India for another practice match in Dhaka before the competition begins.
Bangladesh have been drawn in Group A along with Myanmar, Cambodia and Macau, who qualified on away goal rules after an aggregate 3-3 draw with Mongolia despite a 3-1 defeat in the away leg on Tuesday.
SQUAD
Aminul (captain), Biplab, Nasir, Wali, Mishu, Rashed, Rajani, Sujan, Saikat, Mamun, Arman, Sharif, Pranotosh, Manik, Zahed Parvez, Mamunul, Munna, Emon, Enamul and Mithun.
Officials: Imtiaz Sultan Jony (manager), Edson Silva Dido (head coach), Shafiqul Islam Manik (coach), Ariel Coleman (trainer) and Dalilur Rahman (Physio).