Anisur Rahman

Of late, two major reasons pushed football to suddenly become a focal point of discussion among sports lovers in Bangladesh: the national women's football team's withdrawal from the Paris Olympic women's football qualifiers after the men's team's subpar display against lowly Seychelles in two FIFA friendly matches last month.

The Bangladesh women’s football team have been injecting fresh air for years amidst all the doldrums.

The way fitness coach Ivan Razlog and physio Kandasmy Senthil Kumar Yoseshwar kept an eye on journalists, especially cameramen and photographers to ensure no footage of the training session was being captured, it seemed as if Bangladesh were set to play a crucial international match at the Sylhet District Stadium today.

Karateka Marzan Akter Priya hurdled obstacles from within her family to take up sports as a profession. She won gold in karate in the 2019 South Asian Games. In an interview marking International Women’s Day on Wednesday, the fine arts student of Jagannath University talked to The Daily Star’s Anisur Rahman as she spoke about the special occasion and the scope and advancement of women in sports in general in the country.

Although Mojibur Rahman Jony got into Bangladesh’s 27-member preliminary squad on the back of only 10 Bangladesh Premier League matches worth of experience, the 19-year-old attacking midfielder had to face serious hurdles on his journey so far; including a death-scare.

Despite having been the third-choice player at his position, injuries to two of his teammates in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League not only paved the way for Abahani left-back Alomgir Mollah in cementing his place in the starting eleven but the 22-year-old went on to earn a call-up to the national team’s 27-member preliminary squad for the upcoming 2023 Tri Nations Cup at home.

Despite the introduction of the Bangladesh Youth Games, the nation is still apparently dwelling in the “something is better than nothing” era when it comes to forging a proper pipeline for athletes.

For too long the country’s athletics had failed to live up to its celebrated past at the international stage. While the Bangladeshi sprinters -- the likes of Shah Alam, Bimal Chandra Tarafder, MahbubAlam -- contributed to five golds out of the overall eight medals in athletics from 1984 to 2019 at the regional multi-sports extravaganza in the form of South Asian Games, it has been 17 frustrating years since Mahfizur Rahman Mithu won a gold medal in 110m hurdles in the 2006 Colombo edition.  

Schools across the world have always been considered as breeding grounds of all forms of sports. Sports at school level in Bangladesh were once vibrant and paved the way for many famous athletes to emerge in the fields of football, cricket, chess, hockey, athletics, and many other disciplines. Some of the school-based competitions which created such an impact were Inter-school Football tournament, Nirman School Cricket tournament, Bata School Chess tournament, and so on.

The success of women's football across different age-groups had demanded the re-introduction of the women's football league in a bid to provide female footballers with a foundation for them to stay in football and hone their skills for international competitions.

The country’s domestic football in 2022 was much more vibrant compared to any season in the past. All football competitions,

“We’re an intelligent squad, we know how to read the game, we know how to suffer when necessary, when to press. Every detail counts in every match,” Lionel Messi said after hurdling Croatia in the World Cup semifinal in Qatar.

State-run Bangladesh Television bought the rights to cover all 66 2022 FIFA World Cup matches for a whopping Tk 98 crore after a belated move from the government.

Former Bangladesh international Alfaz Ahmed believes the Qatar World Cup is going to be full of excitement, especially considering that the world’s two most popular footballers, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Rolando, will be making their last appearance in the greatest show on earth.

State-run bank Agrani Bank Ltd decided to discard 50 years of its footballing heritage, saying in a letter that its club, Agrani Bank Ltd SC, would not be involved in any tournaments organised by the Bangladesh Football Federation due to cost-cutting measures.

Signing for a club after taking advanced payment from another club has apparently become a common phenomenon for the country's top footballers during the Bangladesh Premier League transfer window, and the latest one that began on October 8 ahead of the 2022-23 season proved to be no exception.

The incident of a Bangladesh Table Tennis team handing a walkover to their opponents happened not so long ago -- in 2014 during the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Japan. In that event, Rahima Khatun, Akhi Akter and Sharmin of the women’s team were fortunate not to face any punishment from the Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation (BTTF).

Nobody could tell yesterday how $1,300 and other belongings of two of the heroes of Bangladesh’s SAFF Women’s Championship-winning team were stolen, staining the jubilations.

“After a lot of hard work, we enjoyed last night to the fullest. We shed tears of joy and we danced on the bus all the way to the hotel,”

"We had a dream of winning the SAFF Women's Championship but we could not do it. The dream finally came true through this group of brilliant girls," was the instant reaction from former national striker Suinu Pru Marma, who represented Bangladesh in the first three editions of the regional women's football extravaganza.