Young TigersUnder-16 cricket from tomorrow

The Standard Chartered Young Tigers Under-16 National Cricket tournament will kick off tomorrow (Saturday) with the aim to identify a good number of cricketers from the grassroots level.
BKSP will take on Dhaka Ideal School in the opening match at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium.
A media briefing was arranged in this regard on Thursday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
“A very significant part of our corporate social responsibility is youth development through sports and here a big point of focus for us is cricket. School cricket a few years ago was not as structured as it is now and the BCB deserves a lot of credit for that. We want to be a partner of BCB in identifying talent and bringing them to mainstream cricket so that they get an opportunity to play in the national team someday. We hope to continue with this in the coming years also,” said Head of corporate affairs of Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh Bitopi Das Chowdhury.
BCB game development committee member and chairman management Committee of this year’s competition Jalal Ahmed Chowdhury said the BCB-Standard Chartered partnership, that began in 2005 has already started to bear fruit.
“I guess the biggest plus point for us has been the representation of a large group of players in our different age-group teams including the Bangladesh Under 19 who have played in the Standard Chartered Young Tigers tournament at some point. Also noticeable is the importance the schools are giving to cricket and you will find a good number of qualified coaches with Level 1 or Level 2 degrees being hired by schools this year.”
Bangladesh Test and ODI batsman Mehrab Hossain Junior made a guest appearance at the briefing and narrated how school cricket has shaped his career.
 “At one corner of my room a trophy from my school cricket days remind me of something special. I had been a prolific scorer in school cricket and was immediately signed by a first division club. I think my performance in school cricket was the reason for such a rapid promotion at that age. You can also see the same impact school cricket has had in the careers of Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and the others.”        
BCB’s acting national game development manager Nazmul Abedeen and deputy manager programmes Sharif Mahmud were also present at the briefing.