Raihan Mahmood
After four years of waiting from the previous World Cup games which were held in 2006 in Germany, the FIFA World Cup 2010 tournament is finally back again. This time, the games are going to be even more competitive and challenging because those countries who qualified are among the world’s strongest teams and they are competing against each other this midsummer for the championship title.And this year, it is the 19th FIFA World Cup tournament which will be held in South Africa which is one of the youngest members of FIFA. The final draw for choosing the hosting country took place on 4th December 2009 in Cape Town. South Africa has become the first African country to win the bidding in hosting this prestigious event. This exciting tournament lasts for 4 weeks which will start from June 11th and end on July 11th.
A total of 32 teams have been finalized for this world cup including the hosts. All those who have been finalized have been divided into of 8 groups and each group consists of 4 teams. The best 2 teams from every group will automatically qualify for the next stage. This is an elimination games where the winner will be up to compete for the next stage while the loser will be eliminated
FULL LIST OF TEAMS AT 2010 WORLD CUP
HOSTS: South Africa
AFRICA QUALIFYING: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria
ASIA QUALIFYING: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
EUROPE QUALIFYING: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
SOUTH AMERICA QUALIFYING: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
NORTH, CENTRAL AMERICA AND QUALIFYING: Honduras, Mexico, United States
ASIA/OCEANIA PLAY-OFF New Zealand
Bangladesh’s falter but prevail in Asian Games Hockey qualifiers
Hosts Bangladesh displayed their brilliance late beating newly crowned champions Oman by 4-1 goals in the last league match of Asian Games Qualifying.
Despite the day’s first defeat Oman smartly reached the final round of the Asian Games Hockey as the champions of qualifying round securing 11 points from all the six matches.
Singapore finished runners-up in the seven-nation qualifying meet to reach the final round of Asian Games Hockey.
Bangladesh, which earlier eyed the top slot in the 7-nation meet, finished 5th with eight points – their ever-worst result in Asian qualifying hockey. But, with a sigh of relief, Bangladesh got a chance to play in the final round as per the latest decision of Asian Hockey Federation.
The Asian Hockey Federation recently decided that 12 teams instead of eight – with six teams from qualifying round – will play in the final round of Asian Games Hockey to be held in China in November this year.
Pre-tournament favorite Bangladesh made a good start in the qualifying meet beating lowly Thailand 8-1 and also completed their qualifying round engagements with a comfortable 4-1 victory over
formidable Oman.
The outcome of Bangladesh’s other four matches were nothing but a sorry tale of sorrow and frustration.
Bangladesh conceded a frustrating 5-7 goals defeat against Chinese Taipei in the 2nd match, split points with Hong Kong in a 2-2 draw in the 3rd match, played to a 3-3 draw against Sri Lanka in the 4th match and shattered their hope losing to Singapore 0-1 in the 5th match.
Abahani out of the AFC Presidents Cup
Two-time champions Dordoi Biskek of Kyrgyzstan moved into the semi-finals of the AFC Presidents Cup after playing out a goalless draw with hosts Dhaka Abahani at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Sunday.
In the other match of the day, New Road Team of Nepal beat Hasus NTCPE 4-3.
Abahani needed a victory in the game while their Kyrgyz counterparts needed a draw to win Group A.
They did it with a professional approach never taking any risk.
Although Abahani earned five points they failed to make the final four as the best runners-up as they fell behind Group C runners-up ITTU of Turkmenistan on goal difference. Abahani’s draw against NTCPE was not counted as per bye-laws of the tournament. The sky-blue outfit had missed out on the semi-final spot of the last edition after playing a goalless draw with Ashgabat of Tajikistan.
Bangladesh cricket team is in England
The first Test match between England and Bangladesh will be played at the Lord’s in London from the 27th of May. England will go into the Tests with supreme confidence given their performances leading up to the games. They have just won the T20 World Cup, and to add to that, they have also beaten Bangladesh in every game on their tour of Bangladesh.
Coach Jamie Siddons is under no illusions as to the task confronting his Bangladesh side in their Test series against England after watching them struggle on day two against Essex. “We face a massive job but at least our preparations are going quite well,” Siddons said. Shahadat Hossain can be a frustrating bowler and sometimes struggles to get two successive deliveries in the right place,” he admitted.
“He is the fastest bowler we have and we certainly need him to be more consistent because when he gets it right he can be a handful.
“The most encouraging feature has been the way Robiul Islam has been performing. He’s been swinging the ball and that always gives us a little bit of hope.
“But I’m the first to admit there is still plenty of room for improvement. All the bowlers have been guilty of sending down too many loose deliveries, particularly down the leg side, and that is something that desperately needs to be addressed.”
On the previous tour of Bangladesh, England had played two Tests and three ODIs, and won all five games rather comfortably, which means that the side has had a better of the Bangladeshis even in conditions that have been very alien to them. How does the Bangladeshi side adjust to the English conditions will be an interesting point to ponder and with the Lord’s ground making things difficult for most touring sides, it cannot get worse for an under-confident Bangladesh side.