The first Test captain of Bangladesh, Naimur Rahman, said that the continued failure in Test cricket is an unwanted fate for Bangladesh.  Over the last three years, Bangladesh played 19 Tests and lost 14 of them with only three wins and two draws. In most cases, batters lost the game for the teams. They failed to impress both at home and abroad.  Recently, Bangladesh played a home series against Sri Lanka and ended up losing by 1-0. The Tigers also lost the first match of the two-match Test series against West Indies in Antigua despite being more experienced than the hosts.  In the second Test against Sri Lanka and first against West Indies, six Bangladeshi batters failed to score anything. Along the process, Bangladesh became the first team in history to suffer six ducks in consecutive Tests.  “Compared to our time, players get more facilities now,” Naimur said. “In that sense, it’s unfortunate that we are not being able to earn the result we deserve. As a nation, as the board, organizers or spectators, everyone wants to do well in the shorter format of the game.” As of the first Test in the ongoing series against the West Indies, Bangladesh played 133 Tests and won only 16 of them. Naimur believes the situation is the result of Bangladesh’s lesser attention to the longer format of cricket. READ: BAN vs WI Series 2022: How Bangladesh’s players fared in first Test “Test is the main cricket,” Naimur said. “It’s been years since we got the Test status. So we have to do well now. I think if we don’t concentrate on the longer version of cricket on the domestic circuit, we won’t be able to do well.” In the first Test of the ongoing series in the West Indies, Bangladesh were tumbled for 103 in the first innings with six batters failing to score anything. Shakib Al Hasan, the newly-appointed Test captain was the only batter to have scored runs— the fifties in both innings.  After the first match, Shakib slammed the batters for their failure to take up the responsibilities. He said it would be easy for him to axe the players if the poor cricket continues from them.  The second Test of this series will take place on June 24. After the two-match Test series, both the teams will take on each other in a three-match ODI and two-match T20I series. 

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has sought a stronger role from the heads of Bangladesh Missions abroad to boost trade and investment, and improve the quality of services that the missions offer to expatriates. He also alerted the heads of missions about the Prime Minister’s zero tolerance policy to corruption and advised them to avoid any incident that may harm the reputation of the respective mission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bangladesh as a whole. “You all know our Prime Minister’s policy is zero tolerance to corruption. I don’t want to see anything in our missions abroad that harms our reputation. We don’t want to hear any such thing. You remain alert on that front,” Dr Momen conveyed the message to Bangladesh Missions head abroad seeking their strong position against corruption. READ: Bangladesh seaweed is a goldmine waiting to be tapped: FM The Foreign Minister came up with a slew of suggestions during his recent virtual interactions with the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of Bangladesh outlining the course of actions in the New Year – 2022 to ensure quality services without compromising with honesty and sincerity. State Minister for Foreign Minister Md Shahriar Alam, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, Secretary (East) Mashfee Binte Shams, Secretary (West) Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury and Secretary (Maritime Affairs Unit) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rear Admiral (retd) Md Khurshed Alam also joined the interactions.  

Bangladesh’s series win over Australia by a margin of 4-1 is a big step towards becoming a big team in future, believes Bangladesh all rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who won the player of the series award. Bangladesh played this series without the services of Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Liton Das, who are integral parts of the Bangladesh T20I setup. Despite their absence, young Bangladeshi players did well and lifted the title.  It was Bangladesh’s maiden series win against Australia. Before this series, the Tigers faced Australia in four T20Is but failed to win any of them.  READ: BAN vs. NZ 2021: New Zealand Announce Squad For the T20 Series against Bangladesh “It was great to win this game without the service of some big players,” Shakib told the media after winning the fifth match of the series, in which he bagged four wickets.  “It will surely inspire us more, and it will also help us to take the responsibilities in the coming days. When they will come back, our strength will surely increase,” Shakib added.  Shakib believes that the young players created a healthy competition in the team. According to him, healthy competition is something that helps a team to become a big team.  Along with Shakib, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam and Nasum Ahmed played tremendously well against Australia. In the third and fourth matches, Mustafizur conceded only nine runs each. His bowling performance against Australia became the talk of the cricketing world.  Australian spinner Ashton Agar said Mustafizur is a “difficult customer”. More of Agar’s teammates came to praise Bangladesh’s left-arm pacer.  Bangladesh will now take on New Zealand in early September. The Black Caps will arrive in Bangladesh later this month. They will also play a five-match T20I series against the Tigers.  READ: Shakib Al Hasan Favourite to Win ICC’s Player of the Month for July Ahead of the New Zealand series, the Tigers were scheduled to take England at home. But the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have decided to play this series in March 2023.

The country’s single largest rooftop solar plant was inaugurated on Sunday at the privately owned Korean Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Anwara upazila of Chattagram. The power plant, installed on the rooftop of the factories in the EPZ will generate 16 MW in the first phase while the total capacity of the plant will be 40 MW. Inaugurating the plant, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the government has been laying special emphasis on promotion of renewable energy across the country. “We’ve set a target to generate 40 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2041”, he told the function.