Ashfaq Ul Mushfiq

Ahead of the biggest night of European club football, numerous tactical analysis, speculations and predictions were made on how the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid would play out. In football, a game where goals define the result, marksmen like Karim Benzema, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Vinicius Jr. predictably garnered the  most attention on the occasion.

In pursuit of his passion from a very young age, boxer Sura Krishna Chakma made headlines around Bangladesh as he was crowned champion in the lightweight division of the recently-concluded ‘Xcel presents South Asian Pro Boxing Fight Night - The Ultimate Glory’, the first international professional boxing tournament held in the country earlier this week.

One may have heard many legendary tales of heroes who carried their troops single-handedly to the shores of victory, for there have been many instances in football’s vast and glorious history.

Oscar Bruzon had coached in Spain, India and Maldives before arriving in Bangladesh, where he guided his charges to over 100 games ever since the Spaniard took over in 2018, raising Bashundhara Kings in the club-to-beat status.

The Daily Star (DS): When you got the offer to coach Abahani, what were your initial thoughts about Bangladesh and what is your current impression?

Eid is a festival that bestows many a welcome break from their everyday hustle and bustle as they immerse themselves in celebrating the occasion with their loved ones.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief selector Minhajul Abedin stressed on the 'home condition' factor as the reason behind leaving out seamer Abu Jayed from Bangladesh's squad for the upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka in May. He also pointed at the pace-variation criteria which led to Rejaur Rahman Raja being called into the squad.

 After a decade of being the main striker of the European powerhouse Real Madrid, Karim Benzema is probably having the season of his career at the age of 34. “When everything is on the line, Karim Benzema keeps scoring!” TV commentator Alejandro Moreno aptly described the Frenchman, who is the frontrunner to bag this season’s Pichichi [Spanish league’s top goal-scorer of the season award] with Los Blancos having one hand their 35th La Liga trophy.

What had casually initiated with bare minimum resources as a means to maintain fitness after a hectic day at the office, Green Table Tennis centre slowly emerged, in less than a decade, into one of the most well-equipped table tennis training platforms in the country without any peripheral assistance.

“The walls in our living room turned white because he would practice football there,” Shahinur Akter said as she reflected on Muntakim Ul Islam’s dedication after her son forged another freestyle world record on June 21.

Bozlur Rahman was perplexed, failing to fathom what special attention his teenage son hoped to garner by skipping rope all day. His confusion turned to joy on January 2, 2021, when Rasel Islam claimed two Guinness World Records.

Monirul Islam, a 22-year-old student at the Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, holds two Guinness World Records for balancing objects on the back of his hand.

Ashraful Islam, commonly known as “Jhohan Freestyle”, is a young boy from Chattogram who broke four Guinness World Records in freestyle football. He spoke to The Daily Star about how he got started on his record-setting journey and his ambitions for the future.

Bangladeshi cyclists Drabir Alam, Tanvir Ahmed, Mohammad Alauddin and Rakibul Islam, better known as Team BDC, claimed the Guinness World Record greatest distance cycled in 48 hours by a relay team by cycling 1670.334 km last month.

Shadman Islam, seeing out the new ball: Despite not scoring big runs, Shadman’s 43-run opening stand with Mahmudul Hasan Joy till the 19th over was enough time for the new ball to wear, making life easier for the middle-order batters.

It was the second over of the first session of Day Two yesterday, where Liton Das was standing on 114 runs as he was about to face Hasan Ali’s last ball of the over.

After the inception of the South Asian Games in 1984, Bangladeshi athletes had produced stellar performances in the first three editions, with Shah Alam becoming the fastest man in 1985 and 1987.

When football returned following its slumber owing to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, one of the beautiful game’s key elements eluded it. Fans, whose presence had been taken for granted for decades, were suddenly forced to stay away and watch the teams they love from home for an entire season.

The Daily Star (DS): Did you start the season with the target of reaching the 100-goal landmark?

Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal expressed consternation regarding the delay in the announcement of Zimbabwe’s squad ahead of the three-match ODI series during an online press conference on the eve of the first ODI yesterday.