Shakib adjudged number one as BSPA honours sports stars

Bangladesh Test and T20 skipper Shakib Al Hasan won the best sports personality award as the Bangladesh Sports Press Association marked its 60th anniversary by according reception awarding 10 sports stars and journalists in an award ceremony held at a city hotel on Friday. 

An eight-member jury board, that had shortlisted 108 athletes to have featured for Bangladesh since the Independence of the nation, narrowed it down to 10 as they recognised Shakib as the best to have graced the sports arena of the country.

Former national team footballer and current Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salauddin placed second with Grandmaster Niaz Morshed adjudged third. The late footballer Monem Munna, boxer Mosharraf Hossain, cricketer Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, shooter Asif Hossain Khan, sprinter Shah Alam, swimmer Mosharraf Hossain Khan, and golfer Siddiqur Rahman were set on the list in that order.

Aside from this, the organisation felicitated 10 sports journalists for their contribution to the industry. They are: The late Abdul Hamid, the late Tawfiq Aziz Khan, the late Badiuzzaman, the late Ataul Haque Mollik, Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Shahidul Azam, Mohammad Kamruzzaman, Dilu Khandaker, Abdul Towhid, and Mostafa Mamun.

State Minister of Youth and Sports, Zahid Ahsan Russel, Bashundhara Kings president Imrul Hasan and the president of AIPS Asia Hee Dong Jung handed the trophies and the cheques at the ceremony.