A wants by Rahim.

Rahim, having replaced Shakib Al Hasan as skipper, enjoyed a memorable start to his tenure as he helped Bangladesh defeat West Indies by three wickets in Tuesday's Twenty20 match.

Speaking after the win, Rahim said: "I think if you look at the two teams, West Indies were favourites to win this match, but it all comes down to who plays better on the day. We look forward to doing that in the one-dayers as well."

Bangladesh's win means they have now tasted success in their last three international outings, having also won the last two ODIs against Zimbabwe in August - albeit in a losing cause after going 3-0 down in the five-match series.

Bangladesh are unlikely to alter their combination, though Shuvagoto Hom could push Alok Kapali out of the final eleven. Vice-captain Mahmudullah, who is unlikely to feature as he is suffering from a virus. So that should give Nasir Hossain another chance to come good.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy insists his side, who went into the match on the back of a surprise 25-run T20 win over world champions England last month, did not underestimate their opponents.

"We knew it was going to be an interesting series. They held their nerve better than we did. We never took them for granted," he said.

"We could have scored more runs, and we could have stopped more balls in the field. But in the end we made more mistakes than they did, that is why we lost."

He added on www.windiescricket.com: "This is the start of the series so we will regroup and come back.

"We have the three one-dayers and the two Test matches so there is a lot to play for. We will look at the areas where we went wrong and lift our game for the upcoming matches."

The tourists will be boosted by the return of power-hitter Kieron Pollard who should come in for Danza Hyatt in the middle order. Pollard helped Mumbai Indians clinch the Champions League trophy.

Eight Bangladeshi executes by Saudi Arabia

Eight Bangladeshi men have been executed in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh on Friday.The migrant workers, who were beheaded in public, were sentenced to death for the alleged murder of an Egyptian man in April 2007. Since the end of the Holy month of Ramadan, executions have resumed in Saudi Arabia at an alarming rate. “Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions is deeply disturbing,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy. as a Bangladeshi it' so sad for me.

match at the Fatullah stadium on Friday -The visiting West Indies team

West Indies team feasted upon BCB XI’s frail batting, to open their Bangladesh tour with a facile 65 run victory in a 45-over practice match at the Fatullah stadium on Friday.

Batting first, the visitors struggled to cope with the slow pitch and posted 217 for nine in the stipulated 45 overs. However, the local batsmen’s dismal show saw the BCB XI bundle out for just 152 with four overs to spare.

Shahriar Nafees, the BCB XI skipper opted to field, with lady luck’s favour in the tussle of the coin, hoping to form a web around the visiting batting side with his array of spinners. Among the 45 stipulated overs, 34 were bowled by the spinners and the target was not an unachievable one. But apart from the experienced names, Md Ashrfaul and Alok Kapali, all the other batsmen failed to rise to the occasion.

A second string West Indies attack, with strike bowler Kemar Roach and Debendra Bishu left out, hit the Bangladesh castle on regular intervals to pound up the pressure and gradually cruised to victory.

The Windies opening was rather sluggish, as Lendl Simmons played 20 balls to score 4 and Kieran Powell took 41 balls to score 18 runs. West Indies will relay heavily on Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels, who stood firm against the local spinners and hardly showed any discomfort against the spin attack. Bravo’s 47 off 74 balls studded with five fours and one six and Samuel’s 47 ball 30, with two fours put the visitors back on track.

With the tempo regained, skipper Darren Sammy and keeper Denesh Ramdhin concentrated on rotating the strike and the local bowlers lost the way. Sammy’s 27 off 24 and Ramdin’s 23 ball 33 took the match away from BCB XI’s grip. Ramdin was dropped by Junaed Siddiqe off Alok Kapali at covers on 26.

Implementation of Agreements-indo-bangla politics

The people in the enclaves on both sides are keen that agreements should be implemented earliest. A 10-day agitation programme was announced by the India-Bangladesh Enclaves Exchange Coordination Committee simultaneously in all the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India and 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh, to underline the demand for merger of the enclaves with the mainland without wasting any further time. Thus any delay will only add to trepidation at the ground level.

On the other hand there are many challenges for implementing some of the agreements due to poor infrastructure such as roads, barriers at the border and lack of development of railways and inland water transport. Indian government is trying to increase the pace and has sanctioned Rs 267 Crore for construction of a new railway link between India's Agartala and Akhaura in Bangladesh. Similar impetus on other infrastructure issues including roads in Bangladesh will be necessary.

Political Management indo-bangla politics

Much touted to be a major break through in relations between India and Bangladesh, the visit of Dr Man Mohan Singh to Dhaka in some ways turned out to be a damp squib in some ways as two main agreements the Teesta River Waters Sharing and Transit could not be inked. These were the main touch points. Clearly the West Bengal Minister Mamata Banerjee played spoil sport as she did not agree to ink the Teesta agreement given fall out that it would have in local State politics. Lack of effective political management is therefore evident for the deal should have been worked out well in advance to be acceptable to the state government.

At the same time, the West Bengal Chief Minister lost a chance of emerging as a leader with wider national perspective and able to shape internal space by providing alternate relief to the people through measures such as subsidies and land for loss they may have suffered due to the water treaty.

The Bangladesh opposition was also in a similar mood raising fears of surrender to India thereby vitiating the larger atmosphere for bilateral amity. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) slammed Sheikh Haseena and the Awami League for having given too much and not getting the Teesta River Waters deal through. The need for political consensus on both the sides of the Indo Bangladesh divide could thus be well appreciated given nature of deal with swap of land as well as distribution of water being the most emotive issues in societies which are primarily agricultural economies with small land holdings.