SAFF U-15 C’ship from August 21

Defending champions Bangladesh will kick off their SAFF U-15 Championship campaign by taking on Bhutan on August 23 at the Kalyani Stadium in West Bengal.

Five of the South Asian countries will compete in the regional age-group championship, which is scheduled for August 21 to 31.

As last edition’s runners-up Pakistan and Maldives are not taking part in the championship, the five participating teams -- Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka -- will play in round-robin format from where the top two teams will advance to the final, scheduled to take place on August 31.

Bangladesh, who beat Pakistan 3-2 in tiebreaker in the 2018 final in Nepal, will play their second match against Sri Lanka on August 25 before facing Nepal and India on August 27 and 29 respectively.