BPL auction on Dec 20

The second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), which is scheduled to begin on January 17 and hold the players' auction on December 20, will go ahead despite the fact of non-payment to players in the league's first edition.

In a press conference at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday, Afzalur Rahman Sinha, chairman of the BPL's Governing Council, stated that the committee wanted 'to get the ball rolling' since the board wouldn't get a free slot to host the competition later in the season.

He further claimed that while the irregularities with regard to payment of the foreign players have been resolved, payment to all the local players though hasn't yet been completed. The board has provided the franchises with yet another deadline -- December 30 -- to clear the dues.

"We will definitely solve the disputes with the franchises, but as of now the tournament has to go on," said Sinha. "We have been given the responsibility [to organise the tournament] just around 10-12 days back and that time is not enough to organise a league," he added.

Meanwhile, the league might also witness an additional team this year. "Event management company Game On is handling the new team's auction. We will probably get it finalised tomorrow [Saturday]. As the seventh team we will bring on board Rangpur," said IH Mallick, member-secretary of the council.

In another change in the rules of the league, the governing council has decided that no employee of the board would be allowed to be a part of the teams. "There can't be any direct involvement, the coach, board's physio or even the selectors; none can be a part of any team," informed Sinha.

Furthermore, members of the governing council stated that official agreements between the franchises and the board would be signed by December 20. "We didn't have any agreement with the franchisees in the previous edition," said Mallick.

"There will be a few guidelines regarding players' payment in the agreement. For instance, after the auction and before the tournament begins, 25 per cent of the money have to be paid. Before the last match, another 25 per cent should be paid and the rest of the money will have to be paid within six months from the end of the last match," he added.

It was also stated that the payment of the players in the second edition would be done through the board. "The franchises will pay us and we will pay the players, unlike last time," informed Sinha.

President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Nazmul Hassan Papon, who was also present in the press conference, said that while the financial disputes haven't seen a clear cut solution, majority of the problems have been resolved.

"One of the biggest problems during the previous edition was that Game On, the franchises and the players didn't have much to do with the BCB. Whether people agreed to the rules or not, whether the players got paid or not, we didn't have any control over anything since there weren't any written agreements between the parties. We didn't have a clear cut agreement and therefore couldn't take any action," said Papon.

The president however stated that such problems would not recur, once the board has a written agreement with the franchises. "If any party doesn't go by the rules this time, we can always take a action against them," said Papon

Top criminal Bikash freed on bail

Top terror Bikash Kumar Biswas was secretly released from Kashimpur jail-2 yesterday upon a bail order.

Jail sources told The Daily Star last night that Bikash, 46, was released around 9:00am.

A resident of Mirpur, Bikash and his brother Prokash Kumar Biswas, also a top terror, are accused of several murders in the capital, especially in Mirpur and Agargaon areas.

Bikash has served 15 years in several cases since 1997 while Prokash is on the run.

Tearful Obama calls for 'meaningful action' after school shooting

President Obama: "Heal the broken heated and bind up their wounds". 

Choking up and wiping away tears, President Barack Obama said on Friday that "our hearts are broken" for the victims of a deadly shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school and called for "meaningful action" to curb gun violence.

"We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years," Obama said during a somber televised appearance in the White House briefing room just hours after one of the worst mass shootings in US history.

Pausing to collect himself as he expressed "overwhelming grief" as a parent, Obama deplored the "heinous" attack by a heavily armed gunman who killed at least 27 people, including 20 children and himself, at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Obama, who has responded to previous shooting massacres by citing the need for a national conversation about gun violence, again stopped short of calling for tougher gun-control laws, considered politically risky in a country known for its flourishing gun culture.

But, little more than a month after his decisive re-election to a second term, he suggested that in the aftermath of Friday's tragedy he might be open to considering a less cautious approach.

"As a country, we have been through this too many times," Obama said, ticking off a list of recent shootings.

"And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics," he said, in an apparent reference to the influence of the National Rifle Association, a powerful pro-gun lobby, in Congress.

Obama avoided making direct calls for gun control during his bitterly fought campaign for a second term, which he secured in the November 6 election.

But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who co-chairs a coalition of mayors on gun-control policy, urged the Democratic president to tackle the issue despite likely opposition from Republicans who control the US House of Representatives.

"We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today," Bloomberg said in a statement

Outside the White House gates, about 200 people rallied Friday evening in favor of gun restrictions. "No more lives shattered by gun violence," read one placard.

PAUSE IN PARTISAN BICKERING

Meantime, partisan bickering in Washington, divided as much as ever before by a battle over a looming "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, was put on hold on Friday amid mourning for the dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Obama ordered flags at federal buildings to be lowered to half-mast and he canceled an official trip to Maine scheduled for Wednesday. There was no immediate word from the White House on when the president might visit Connecticut to console grieving families.

"Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost," Obama said, his voice cracking with emotion.

"Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain," he said.

Obama, who has two young daughters, looked grim when he entered the briefing room, and he paused and blinked hard after mentioning the ages of the dead children - from 5 to 10 years old.

"I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do," he said.

Obama raised a finger and dabbed at the corner of his eye on several occasions. While speaking, he set his jaw several times. At the end of his statement, there was a tear visible below his left eye and that side of his face was slightly wet.

Obama has issued public statements before in the aftermath of shooting massacres.

Following the killing of six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in early August, he said such incidents should prompt soul-searching by all Americans.

But when asked then whether he would push for further gun-control measures in the wake of the shootings, Obama said only that he wanted to bring together leaders at all levels of American society to examine ways to curb gun violence.

The president has said he supports the reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons sales, but he did little in his first term to advance it.

Asked about gun control on Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the immediate aftermath of the Connecticut shooting was not the right time for policy debates.

Bishwajit killer Shakil held

Shocked, his father dies of cardiac arrest

Ansar Ali Khalifa, father of Rafiqul Islam Shakil, a key accused of Bishwajit Das killing, died Saturday morning due to cardiac arrest an hour after police arrested Shakil in Barguna.
In spite of being his father, Ansar outspokenly demanded punishment of Shakil who brutally chopped the innocent tailor with a machete during opposition’s blockade on December 9.
“But he breathed his last early in the morning. He was too shocked to tolerate it. Shakil was arrested around 5:00am and he (Ansar) expired around 6:00am,” a relative of Shakil told The Daily Star at the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital, Barisal where doctor pronounced Ansar dead.