Sensational Shakib keeps Bangladesh in semifinal contention
Bangladesh win by 62 runs
Southampton, Jun 24: Shakib Al Hasan came up with a special all-round performance, steering Bangladesh to a 62-run win over Afghanistan here on Monday and keeping their semifinal hopes alive in the World Cup.
Mushfiqur Rahim (83 off 87 balls) and Shakib (51 off 69) showed their class on a difficult surface to help Bangladesh post a competitive 262 for seven after Afghanistan opted to field at the Hampshire Bowl.
Shakib, who also became the tournament's leading run getter on way to his half-century, was also exceptional with the ball. The left-arm spinner ended with figures of five for 29 for in 10 overs, his best in ODI cricket.
With this incredible effort, Shakib also became only the second cricketer after India's Yuvraj Singh to score a fifty and take a five-wicket haul in a World Cup match.
Chasing 263 was always going to be tough for a fragile Afghanistan batting line-up but 48 for no loss in 10 overs raised hopes that the Gulbadin Naib-led side might just get its first win of the tournament after six losses in a row.
However, the batting fell apart after Shakib removed Rahmat Shah (24) and from 49 for no loss, Afghanistan were reeling at 132 for six. The seventh wicket stand for 56 runs between Samiullah Shinwari (49 not out) and Najibullah Zadran (23) saved them the blushes. Afghanistan were eventually all out for 200 in 47 overs.
Bangladesh's third win in seven games took them to seven points and if they win their remaining fixtures against India and Pakistan, the Mashrafe Mortaza-led unit will end the league stage with 11 points.
Earlier, Rahim and Shakib shared a 61-run partnership laying the foundation for a decent score on a slow surface. The India-Afghanistan game here on Saturday also saw batsmen struggle to score freely.
Mosaddek Hossain (35 off 24) provided the much-needed fireworks in the death overs, taking the total past 250. The stand-out bowler for Afghanistan was spinner Mujeeb Ur-Rahman (3/39), troubling the batsmen with his variations.
Liton Das (16) was promoted to open the innings alongside Tamim Iqbal (36) with Soumya Sarkar pushed down the order. Das could not make the opportunity count and was caught at cover off Mujeeb.
Iqbal and star all-rounder Shakib then shared a 59-run stand before Mohammad Nabi hit the former's stumps, leaving Bangladesh at 82 for two in 17 overs.
Shakib, who surpassed David Warner to become the tournament's leading run-getter, played a gritty knock that included just one four.
The world's premier all-rounder has so far scored two hundreds and three half-centuries in the competition.
Rahim, who too has been in sublime form like Shakib, played another valuable knock for his team. Had he not fired, Bangladesh would have struggled to go beyond 225. His innings comprised four boundaries and a six.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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