While his buddy Mohammed Ashraful is playing in Hamilton, Nafis Iqbal, the captain of Bangladesh Under-19, is preparing for the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. Nafis led his side in Australia where they took on several county teams and clubs. His squad did well there, pulled off some successes noticeably. Now the big project is in front the junior World Cup. Everyone is expecting Bangladeshi juniors will do better there.

Mohammed Ashraful and Mashrafe-bin-Mortaza, the teen-agers of Bangladesh national squad, is enjoying the International cricket heartily. They are both under nineteen and can boast of their initial success in the Tests they played so far. Now Ashraful is the youngest Test centurion in the history for his 114 in Colombo. Mashrafe is not far behind; he bagged 11 wickets in three Tests (Including the Hamilton one) jointly standing with Naimur Rahman as the leading wicket taker for his country.

The Under-19 coach Mr. Jalal Ahmed Chowdhury wants them both for the New Zealand World Cup to fortify his squad. He puts down some valid reasons behind his claim. Since Bangladesh is now a Test playing nation the junior teams should be strong and the result should be impressive.

It is now the board's decision whether they would permit the duo to play for U-19 or not. Mindful that Pakistan is coming on January 2 to play two Tests and three one-days. Surely it is going to be tough for the selectors to let these flourishing kids have a go for New Zealand. Particularly the pace attack would be nothing without Mashrafe.

His boys are running their practice sessions in BKSP. Nafis has been declared as the captain by now and his deputy is Shariful Islam. Right now twenty boys are included in the camp, which will be reduced to 14 before the tour. Bangladesh will take on South Africa, Canada and India in their group matches starting from January 20.

© CricInfo