Bangladesh lift Ambassadors Cup

The Bangladesh mission in the US has won the title of the first-ever ‘Ambassadors’ Cup Cricket Tournament’ in Washington, beating Australian embassy by nine wickets.

Eight embassies of the Test-playing nations –Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UK, and Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies) – took part the tournament on Saturday.

New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago embassies jointly organised the tournament at the South Germantown Recreational Park (SGRP) in Maryland.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a media release said the Park wore a festive look following the day-long event.

The Bangladesh embassy stormed into the final, beating New Zealand by 10 wickets in the first match, and Sri Lanka by four wickets in the semi-final of the ten-over match.

In the final, ceremonial captain Ambassador Akramul Qader won the toss and decided to field.

Batting first, the Aussies scored 76 for six wickets. In reply, Bangladesh reached the target in seven overs with the loss of an opener.

Bangladesh’s Tauhidul Islam Rocy, who was adjudged the man of the tournament for scoring 84 runs in three matches, smashed 45 runs in the final.

Australia reached the final, beating UK by eight wickets and India by 10 runs.

Ambassador Qader said the tournament had been organised to foster people-to-people contacts among the diaspora groups of cricket-loving nations in the US.

The tournament will be become a yearly feature from now on. Bangladesh embassy will organise the next year’s tournament, said the media release.