Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has praised young tearawayn Taskin Ahmed for his decision to prefer playing for the national team instead of taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Mashrafe said the pacer should be rewarded by the board so that he and other players feel that the board always stands beside them. “Of course (Taskin should be awarded). When a player skips IPL for national duty, he deserves an award. It makes the cricketer feels good and thinks that the board is beside me and I’m ready to play any format of the game,” Mashrafe told the reporters on Sunday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Also read: Masrahfe praises Shakib for his sacrifice Taskin won the player of the match award twice in the recently concluded series against Proteas, which was the first series win in South Africa as well. In the third match of the series, Taskin bagged five wickets— the second of his career. Right before the third match, Taskin got an IPL call-up from the Lucknow Super Giants. The pacer said no to IPL after a discussion with the Bangladesh Cricket Board. The right-arm pacer is contracted with the board to play all formats of the game. Also read: Imperious Tigers complete historic series win in South Africa

The UNB management has recognised the good performance of its Khulna Correspondent Sheikh Deedarul Alam in bringing interesting stories from the grassroots to the forefront. He was awarded particularly for his recent exclusive video story which drew huge views. Thousands of viewers reacted to the story which is about an Australian citizen -- Malcolm Arnold-- who has been staying in Khulna for the last 18 years after getting married with a Bangladesh woman he fell in love with. Alongside the video story in Bengali version, it was also run in English version under the title of ‘For an Australian in Khulna, home is where his heart was won.’ Also read: For an Australian in Khulna, home is where his heart was won Malcolm Arnold left his home at Adelaide in Australia for Khulna in 2004, within three years of falling in love with a Bangladeshi NGO worker Halima Begum in 2001. The 74-year old Australian has always lived selling his painting works before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Receiving the gift, Deedarul Alam expressed his gratitude to the UNB management saying that he was delighted for the recognition. “I’ve been with UNB since the early 1990s. I received the gift on the very first day of the new year of 2022. It’ll encourage me to work on in the future,” he said. Also read: Khulna’s landless police constable candidate to get permanent address Founded in 1988, UNB is the first fully digitalised wire service in South Asia and is the principal partner in news exchange with AP, one of the world’s largest wire services. Currently, UNB has News Exchange Agreements with 37 countries in the world, including PTI of India, Xinhua of China, Kyodo of Japan, Bernama of Malaysia, AsiaNet, Yonhap of South Korea, ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia, FAAPA of Africa, CAN of Cyprus, Moroccan News Agency (MAP), Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and Emirates News Agency (WAM) of the UAE to name a few.