Bangladesh Tour: England delay naming ODI squad for Bangladesh tour

England delay naming ODI squad

The selectors were due to sit down and pick the squad the middle of next week after Tuesday’s Twenty20 against Pakistan at Old Trafford, which is the final international fixture of the summe.
England are to delay naming their one-day squad for the tour to Bangladesh in an effort to buy more time to persuade captain Eoin Morgan to go on the trip.

But now they are likely to delay it by around a week to allow more time for one-on-one meetings between Andrew Strauss, the team director, and players who have specific fears over the security situation in Bangladesh.

The tour begins with a one-day series and England are due to leave for Bangladesh on Sept 29, with the first of the 50 over matches starting in Dhaka on Oct 7, and captain Morgan’s decision will be closely watched by the other players.

Sources have indicated he has already pulled out of the tour but this has been denied with the board hopeful they can talk him round and allay his concerns.

The players’ wives and girlfriends were given a security briefing by the ECB on Saturday, although as it is unlikely friends and family will go to Bangladesh so the aim would have been more to alleviate fears at home that partners will be safe.

Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket urged supporters intending to follow the team in Bangladesh this autumn to make their own assessment of the situation in the country based on advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Alastair Cook, the Test captain, has told the ECB he will go to Bangladesh although all the players who have spoken publicly about it have been non-committal so far.

Jos Buttler was the first to dodge questions about whether he would go on the tour last week and Alex Hales and Liam Plunkett both admitted before the one-day international at Trent Bride that it is a tough decision.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan advised all the current players of the England team to go on their scheduled tour of Bangladesh and trust the security experts to keep them safe in his column for The Telegraph.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon on August 26  thanked the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to let England's tour of Bangladesh in October to go on as planned.

On August 25, England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that England’s tour of Bangladesh will continue as planned in an official statement.

England’s Test and one-day tour, which had been placed in doubt after the 1 July terrorist attack in Dhaka in which 20 hostages and two policemen were killed, was confirmed last Thursday following a briefing given to the current 50-over squad by Reg Dickason, the ECB’s security adviser, and Andrew Strauss, the director of cricket.

Bolt seals ‘triple-triple’ world record

Bolt seals ‘triple-triple’ world record

Usain Bolt brought the curtain down on his Olympic career with a record-equalling ninth gold medal on Friday, anchoring Jamaica to relay glory in a perfectly scripted finale to complete his unprecedented “triple-triple.”

 

The 29-year-old superstar, widely seen as the greatest sprinter in history, stormed over the line in 37.27sec to trigger an eruption of adulation in the Olympic Stadium.
Japan’s quartet took a surprise silver in 37.60sec while Canada took bronze after the United States, who crossed in third, were later disqualified.
The victory saw Bolt complete a third consecutive clean sweep of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles following his six gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Games.
It leaves Bolt-who will retire in 2017 -- level with Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi on a total of nine Olympic gold medals, a record for a track and field athlete.
“I’m going to stay up late and have fun,” Bolt said. “I never knew this would happen when I started out,” added Bolt, who lingered on the track after his lap of honour, kneeling down to kiss the finish line as chants of “Usain Bolt, Usain Bolt” echoed from the stands.
The relay gold was the final act of an incredible Olympic career that redefined athletics and often left commentators scrambling to find a new vocabulary of superlatives as each new milestone came and went.
‘The man’s a genius’ -
On Sunday Bolt became the first man in history to win a hat-trick of 100m gold medals.
He then followed that up with Thursday’s barnstorming win in the 200m, sealing another never-before-seen treble.
Asked for the secret to his phenomenal career, which encompassed 20 gold medals in world and Olympic championships, Bolt replied simply: “Dedication. I wanted it the most. I was never satisfied.”
Friday’s triumph was potentially the most awkward, with Bolt’s gold medal hopes reliant on the performances of his team-mates.
But Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade were in no mood to fluff their lines.
A superb third leg by Ashmeade ensured that Bolt had a precious lead after the final changeover.
From that point there was only ever going to be one outcome and Bolt powered home by three metres to universal delight.
“We wanted to win to make Usain immortal and he is immortal,” Blake said. “I’ve told him he should come back for 2020!”
Bolt will now set off a year-long victory tour that will culminate with the World Championships in London next August.
The Jamaican is preparing to exit with athletics fighting to restore credibility after a year dominated by doping and corruption scandals.
International Association of Athletics Federations president Sebastian Coe is adamant however that athletics will endure, despite the loss of its most charismatic leading man.
In an interview with AFP on Friday, Coe said Bolt had transcended his sport in a way that was comparable to boxing icon Muhammad Ali.
“The man is a genius,” Coe said. “There’s been nobody since Muhammad Ali who’s got remotely near to what this guy has done in terms of grabbing the public imagination.”
However, Coe argued that just as a new generation of boxers emerged after Ali’s retirement, so track and field would unearth new personalities after Bolt.
“It’s a massive gap, but it’s not a gap that is insuperable,” Coe said.
“You’re not going to fill that gap overnight, but there are great, talented athletes out there.”-AFP

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