Hockey in crisis :
The eighth edition of the Men’s Junior Asia Cup began on November 14 at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium in Kuantan, Malaysia. Eight national teams, including Bangladesh, entered the race.
The Bangladesh have slim chance to survive despite quarterfinal exit from the Asia Youth Hockey Championship underway in Kualalampur. They beat Oman 5-4 and powerful South Korea 2-0 before losing to Japan 0-3 on Thursday and hereby missed the World Youth Hockey Championship 2016. The three other quarterfinalists are India, Pakistan and South Korea.
Whatsoever the result is, hockey has been gasping for breath in he country for past few years due to internal conflict in the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) and for the disagreement between the players and a former general secretary of the federation. The hockey fans saw empty hockey stadium for months together, as there was no Senior Division Hockey League, no International Club Cup Hockey Championship.
The surprising matter is that neither the National Sports Council nor the Ministry of Sports took any initiative to resolve the crisis paralyzing the future of the country’s hockey. Yet after so many lacking, he youth hockey players showed some sort of prospect by beating South Korea at he group stage. The tempo should be retained.
The eighth edition of the Men’s Junior Asia Cup began on November 14 at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium in Kuantan, Malaysia. Eight national teams, including Bangladesh, entered the race.
The Bangladesh have slim chance to survive despite quarterfinal exit from the Asia Youth Hockey Championship underway in Kualalampur. They beat Oman 5-4 and powerful South Korea 2-0 before losing to Japan 0-3 on Thursday and hereby missed the World Youth Hockey Championship 2016. The three other quarterfinalists are India, Pakistan and South Korea.
Whatsoever the result is, hockey has been gasping for breath in he country for past few years due to internal conflict in the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) and for the disagreement between the players and a former general secretary of the federation. The hockey fans saw empty hockey stadium for months together, as there was no Senior Division Hockey League, no International Club Cup Hockey Championship.
The surprising matter is that neither the National Sports Council nor the Ministry of Sports took any initiative to resolve the crisis paralyzing the future of the country’s hockey. Yet after so many lacking, he youth hockey players showed some sort of prospect by beating South Korea at he group stage. The tempo should be retained.
Abdullah Akber
Dhaka
