Dhaka, Aug 17 (UNB) - Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has sought two months from Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to think about the future of his ODI career.

BCB President Nazmul Hasan on Saturday said Mashrafe asked for two more months to decide the future of his ODI career while talking to the board today.

“Mashrafe came to the board for two reasons. We talked to him about appointing a new coach and then we talked about hosting a one-off ODI against Zimbabwe (featuring his retirement),” Nazmul said the media.

“But, he (Mashrafe) thinks it’s too early (to think for retirement). We don’t have any ODI before the next March. So, he wants two more months to think about his future plan. Now, he’s thinking on it and we agreed with him,” the BCB boss further said.

It was believed that the BCB tried to host a one-off ODI against Zimbabwe to set a platform for Mashrafe to wave his hands for the final time to the fans. But due to the reluctant demeanour of Mashrafe, the BCB has to cancel that plan.

Mashrafe had hinted before the World Cup that he would call his final time after the mega event. But during the World Cup, he said he would continue playing for Bangladesh and refused to say anything about his retirement.

The 36-year-old pacer retired from T20Is during Bangladesh’s Sri Lanka tour in 2017. Since then, it has been one of the big questions around cricketing fraternity when Mashrafe will say bye to ODIs.

Dhaka, Aug 17 (UNB) - A 28-member team of April 25 Sports Club (4.25 SC) of North Korea arrived here on Saturday to play their away match of the knockout phase of the AFC Cup against Dhaka Abahani Limited at the Bangabandhu National Stadium here on August 21.

The match will kick off at 6:45pm.

Abahani Manager Satyajit Das Rupu said the North Korean club landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 2pm.

The team will stay at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel and start their training session on Sunday (August 18) at the Abahani Playground in Dhanmondi.

Six-time Bangladesh Premier League Football champions Abahani reached the knockout phase for the first time as the champions of four-team Group E while April 25 SC stormed the knockout phase emerging Group I champions.

In their way to the knockout phase, the North Korean Club defeated Taiwanese club Hang Yuen and two Hong Kong-based clubs Kitchee and Tai Po. 

After the home match, popular sky-blue Dhanmomdi Abahani will play the away match on August 28 at the Kim-ll-Sung Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Dhaka, Aug 17 (UNB) - After weeks of frantic search, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has finally appointed South African Russell Domingo as the new head coach of the Tigers for two years.

BCB President Nazmul Hasan announced Russell’s name as the successor of Steve Rhodes at the BCB Headquarters in Mirpur here on Saturday.

“After hectic search for weeks, we’ve reached a decision that Russell Domingo will be our next coach. As per the initial contract, he’ll coach the Tigers for two years. The South African coach will join the team on August 21, right before the one-off Test against Afghanistan,” Nazmul told the media.

“We took interviews of many candidates after parting our ways with the immediate past coach. We prepared a shortlist of two coaches and now we’ve found that Domingo is the coach we are searching for. He has vast experiences of coaching in South Africa. He started his career as a cricket coach in his early age,” he added.

As per BCB’s findings, Domingo is special to break through the new talents for the senior side. Since Bangladesh has many young players in their bunch, the new coach will be really effective to prepare them for the next ICC World Cup which is scheduled to be held in India in 2023, believes the BCB.

“Our main two criteria were to see who is available to join the team at the earliest time and who will be working on a full-time basis. Domingo successfully met all these. So, we had no confusion to award the contract to him. Domingo said he has no bustle in his life except cricket. He is just looking forward to working with a cricket team for a long time,” Nazmul further said.

Domingo’s first assignment will be the solitary Test against Afghanistan which is scheduled to be played from September 5 at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram. After that, Bangladesh will play a tri-series T20I also involving Zimbabwe and Afghanistan.

Domingo never played professional cricket. The Port Elizabeth-born coach achieved his coaching qualification when he was just 22. At the age of 25, he was hired as a youth coach for Eastern Province of South Africa.

During the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2004 Bangladesh, he was appointed as the coach of South Africa U-19 team. His biggest success came for the domestic cricket club- Warriors franchise. He led them to clinching domestic one-day and Twenty20 competitions during the 2009–10 season. He was the coach of Warriors in the Champions League Twenty20 in 2010 and 2011.

After that, he got the job of coaching South Africa A team. In 2013, he got his dream job of coaching South Africa national team after the resignation of Gary Kirsten.

Before the Eid vacation, a few names such as Russell Domingo, Mike Hesson and Paul Farbrac surfaced around the cricketing fraternity of the country as the probable coach of the Tigers. Even Chandika Hathurusingha was also on the contention. But Domingo was the only candidate who came to Dhaka to face BCB to show his plan for Bangladesh cricket.

Right after interviewing Domingo, BCB expressed their happiness on the plan of Domingo, saying the South African coach could be a good one for Bangladesh.

Earlier, the BCB had parted its ways with Rhodes who was in charge during Bangladesh's World Cup campaign in England and Wales. Bangladesh returned home ending eighth in the 10-team mega event. They won just three matches in the marquee tournament.

The poor display in the World Cup might have prompted BCB high officials to rethink Rhodes' future with Bangladesh prematurely. Rhodes was expected to continue as the head coach till the T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia.

Mason, Aug  17 (AP/UNB) — Naomi Osaka felt a strange sensation in her left knee, different than anything she'd experienced. The U.S. Open champion left the court worried about whether she'll be in shape to defend her precious title.

Osaka retired from her quarterfinal match at the Western & Southern Open on Friday, unsure what's going on in the knee. She expected to get an MRI.

For now, the player currently ranked No. 1 in the world is concerned about her chances of making another deep run in New York.

"Last year, I won the U.S. Open," she said. "This year, I'm trying to play the U.S. Open."

The problem came out of the blue.

Osaka split two sets with Sofia Kenin. She felt something unusual in the knee while serving early in the third set. After a timeout to have it examined and wrapped, she played a couple more points before retiring .

"I have no idea what's going on," she said.

With that, Kenin advanced to the semifinals for the second straight week. During her run to the semifinals in Toronto, she knocked off then-No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, an upset that allowed Osaka to move up to the top ranking. She'll face Madison Keys, who beat Venus Williams 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semifinals for the first time.

Barty is in position to snatch it back heading into the Open. She beat Maria Sakkari 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 with an encouraging all-around effort.

"Still not quite there, but we're getting better and better each match," the French Open champion said. "I think that's the beauty of being able to stay alive in the tournament is to give myself an opportunity to keep getting better. I think I'm still aiming to obviously do very well here, but the big picture is New York in 10 days' time."

She needs some work on those first sets, though.

Barty got ahead 5-2 in her opening set and got sloppy, letting it slip away. It was the second straight day that Barty rallied after dropping a first set. She fought off a match point during a three-set win over Anett Kontaveit on Thursday, showing poise that she'd need to draw upon again a day later.

"There is certainly no panic, where it gets to the stage where I'm kind of overwrought or can't think straight," she said. "I'm still able to, more times than not, have the ability to relax and kind of stay clear and come back to what works."

Barty will face Svetlana Kuznetsova, who reached her first semifinal of the season by beating third-seeded Karolina Pliskova 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.

Kuznetsova is playing only her ninth event after missing the start of the season because of a knee injury. On a hot, humid afternoon, she got treatment for tightness in her upper right leg after the second set and twice again during the final one.

On the men's side, qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka withdrew because of illness, sending David Goffin into the semifinals. Nishioka had a good tournament showing, beating sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori — a player he called his hero — and Alex De Minaur to reach the quarterfinals.

Goffin will face Richard Gasquet, who advanced with a three-set victory over Roberto Bautista Agut. Gasquet had groin surgery in January and fell to No. 68 in the ATP rankings on July 29, his lowest in nine years. He's back in an ATP Masters 1000 semifinal for the first time since 2013 in Miami.

Seven-time champion Roger Federer was upset Thursday, leaving Novak Djokovic as the only high seed left in the bracket.

Zurich,  Aug  17 (AP/UNB)  — The coach who led Nigeria to two Olympic Games medals has been banned for life by FIFA for agreeing to receive bribes to fix soccer matches.

Samson Siasia was punished in the latest case from the investigation into renowned Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Perumal.

FIFA did not specify which games were investigated as it also fined Siasia 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,000) on Friday.

"Siasia agreed to receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches in violation," FIFA said.

Siasia coached Nigeria from December 2010 through October 2011 and again in 2016 when he also led the men's under-23s team at the 2016 Olympics where they beat Honduras 3-2 in the bronze medal match. He also coach Nigeria to silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As a striker for Nigeria, Siasia won the African Cup of Nations in 1994 and played at the World Cup in the United States in the same year.

Siasia is the latest person involved in the Rio Olympics to be convicted by FIFA of match fixing. In 2017, Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey was banned from soccer for life.

No Olympic matches have been publicly identified as being fixed.