SHORT CORNER
Youth Cricket from today
The third edition of the Youth Cricket League gets underway today as South Zone will take on East Zone at the Shahid Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi while Central Zone locks horn with North Zone at the Shahid Chandu Stadium in Bogura today.
The Youth Cricket League features the top Under-19 players to give them competitive matches ahead of the big leagues. The first time the competition was held was in 2016 in Chattogram.
The tournament will be played in two formats -- four-day and one-day matches -- with each team facing off against each other in a league system. All the four-day matches will take place between January 23 and February 9, the one-dayers will begin after a three-day break on February 13. The top two teams on the league table will then play the final at the Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi on February 19.
--Sports Reporter
Bolt retires from football
Jamaican sprint great Usain Bolt has signalled that his hopes of a professional football career are over, saying: "It was fun while it lasted."
Bolt has had several stints in training and on trial at clubs around the world. Most notably, he scored twice in a friendly match for Central Coast Mariners but was unable to agree on a contract with the Australian club.
"I don't want to say it wasn't dealt with properly, but I think we went about it, not the way we should and you learn your lesson, you live and you learn," he said.
--Agencies
Athletics C'ships from tomorrow
The 42nd National Athletics Championships will get underway tomorrow at the Bangabandhu National Stadium with an electronic board being used to get the athletes' real time results.
Some 500 athletes are expected to compete in 36 events -- 22 events for men and 14 events for women -- in the meet which was initially scheduled to take place in last December but had been deferred to January following the national polls.
“We have taken all preparation to make the championship colourful as we will cash-award the athletes who create new records. We believe new athletes will emerge through this championship,” Bangladesh Athletic Federation general secretary Abdur Rakib Montu said. “A total of 360 athletes from 27 teams have already sent their entries but we are expecting that some 500 athletes will take part in the championships.”
--Sports Reporter
England look to defy history
England are solid favourites although history is on the side of the underdog West Indies ahead of the first Test of the three-match series starting Wednesday at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.
Riding a wave of five consecutive victories - eight in nine matches going back to the last English summer - which includes series wins over top-ranked India and an historic sweep in Sri Lanka, the tourists appear supremely confident of overturning the disappointments of their last two Caribbean campaigns.
England have only won one Test series in the West Indies in the past 50 years, a 3-0 triumph in 2004, and failed to live up to expectations in 2009, when they lost 1-0, and again in 2015 when a five-wicket triumph inside three days by the unfancied hosts at the same Kensington Oval venue resulted in a shared series.
--Afp
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