Bangladesh is not able to play in the Asia Cup hockey after 43 years. In view of this major failure of the country’s hockey, the National Sports Council has formed a three-member committee. That committee today took the testimony of four people related to hockey.
Bangladesh has always been the champion of the AHF Cup. This time, they failed to reach the final after losing to Oman in the semi-finals. After that, discussions and criticisms started in the hockey arena. Various issues including team selection and lack of preparation came up regarding the failure. The country’s sports regulatory body, the National Sports Council, formed a three-member committee yesterday to uncover this failure of hockey.
The day after the committee was formed, the committee today spoke to the Federation’s General Secretary Lt. Col. (retd) Riazur Rahman, the coach of the Bangladesh team in the AHF Cup, Mamunur Rashid, former national player and former joint secretary of the Federation Ariful Haque Prince and Russell Mahmud Jimmy. All four presented their own explanations and information from their respective positions.
Russell Mahmud Jimmy is one of the best players in the country. The federation did not call Jimmy for a fitness test in the preliminary squad for the AHF Cup. Many in the hockey arena criticized the exclusion of a player like Jimmy without any test. The topic of excluding Jimmy has come up again after the Bangladesh team failed to play in the Asia Cup. Therefore, the National Sports Council committee also called Jimmy to inquire about various issues. After testifying before the committee, Jimmy told the media, ‘I have raised the issue of how I was excluded due to age. I want hockey in the country to be saved. Everyone will have to rise up in the interests of the individual/team to save hockey.’
Director of Sports Mohammad Humayun Kabir, convener of the National Sports Council Failure Investigation Committee, said about their scope of work, ‘Our committee spoke to a few people related to hockey today. If necessary, we may talk to someone else. When the team returns from abroad, the federation submits a report to the National Sports Council. That report has not come yet. After receiving that report, we will also review that.’