Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) took a bold step by trimming the squad for Asian Games as they cut the figure drastically from near about 226 members to 164 after the frustrating performance in the recently held Commonwealth Games in Glasgow , Scotland .
On Tuesday, the leading BOA members including secretary general Syed Shahed Reza met the BOA president in Cantonment to appraise Bangladesh’s performance in the Commonwealth Games as well as the status of Bangladesh’s participation in the Asian Games.
The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) president and Army Chief General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan vented his frustration over the insipid performance of the Bangladesh contingent in the just concluded Commonwealth Games and provided his view to cut the numbers of participating member for the upcoming Asian Games scheduled to be held in Incheon, Korea from September 19 to October 4.
BOA president was apprised with the performances of the Bangladeshi athletes in the Commonwealth Games. Even the performance of the officials was also discussed in the meeting. General Karim urged his BOA EC members to select the Asian Games squad in light of success of the Commonwealth Games.
On Wednesday, in a meeting at BOA office, BOA EC members as per desired by their Chief, surprise everyone by punishing the athletes who put on embarrassing performance in recently concluded Commonwealth Games as they announced a trimmed squad of 164 participants including the officials.
“He said the contingent will not be sent only for travelling like previous occasions,” said BOA joint secretary general Badal Roy.
Seeking anonymity, another BOA official said, “The president instructed us to reduce the number of athletes and participating disciplines as much as possible. I think the number of disciplines may be reduced to half from initial 21.”
BOA Secretary General Syed Shahed Reza told BSS today (Wednesday) that:”This is high time we should show accountability to government funds. In the past our sports teams from various disciplines has been taking part despite their repeated failure. Time has come to evaluate our performance. Even if you don’t win any medals that’s alright, but the athlete’s performance should be to a certain international level. We don’t want our Athletes to be laughing stock. From now on you have to perform to a certain level in order to go abroad.
The BOA has preliminary penciled a 226-member mega contingent for 21 disciplines and the last date of sending entries is Friday (August 15) now has be cut to 164 members for 21 disciplines.
Bangladesh earlier in last Asian Games in Guangzhou, China won one gold and one silver medal in cricket and clinched a bronze medal in women’s kabaddi.
