Nayeemuddin Needs More Time

Syed Nayeemuddin will take another day to settle his mind before naming two different national teams for this month's Merdeka Cup and Nehru Cup international tournaments.

Bangladesh will send teams of equal strength to the tournaments in Malaysia and India and Nayeemuddin, the former Indian international and coach, who officially took charge as national coach this month, will announce the squads tomorrow instead of today.

"The weather really hampered our training. The ground was waterlogged yesterday so we could not train properly," told Nayeem from the residential camp at BKSP over phone.

"It is also risky. So I want to see them one more day in the field," said Nayeem. Two players including senior centre-back Nazrul Islam picked minor injury and the Indian coach wanted to avoid such risks.

The camp is being run with 47 players and mostly, they did power and physical training in the initial period before going to game practice just a couple of days earlier.

"The footballers have been very sincere in training and I feel they have the urge to do something good. I am satisfied with the fitness," added Nayeem, who has yet to decide which side he will accompany.

"Both the tournaments are tough. So the decision will be taken after discussion with the federation officials."

Acting general secretary of Bangladesh Football Federation and chairman of National Team Management Committee Manzoor Hossain Malu, who spent the entire day at BKSP yesterday, said Nayemuddin should stay with the team that will be the base of the SAFF Football Championship.

"Our main target is SAFF Championship. The stronger teams are coming to the Nehru Cup and I feel it would be more helpful for us if we send the team with Nayeemuddin to India," opined Malu.

Hosts India, Cambodia, Syria, Kyrgyzstan and another team will play in the Nehru Cup (August 18-29) along with Bangladesh.

The organisers, meanwhile, rescheduled the Merdeka Cup (August 18-29) grouping and Bangladesh will be pitted against Indonesia, Singapore and Zimbabwe on August 21, 23 and 25 respectively in Group B.

Myanmar, Lesotho, Laos and hosts Malaysia will play in Group A.