DT e-Paper, Thursday, December 15, 2016

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DT 26 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016 Sport Coach Subimal: We don’t even have kabaddi in BKSP Subimal came to Dhaka in 1973, the same year he started his kabaddi playing career. He continued to feature for the national side in different championships and regional tournaments till he retired in 1982. Subimal came from Bikrampur, Munshiganj but played for Comilla in the national championship in the early 1970s before featuring for Dhaka district and Dhaka metropolitan. He started his coaching career soon after retirement and has continued to selflessly serve the nation till today. He has witnessed both the good and bad times of the country’s national sport since independence. Dhaka Tribune managed to get hold of the veteran coach for an exclusive interview. Here are the excerpts: Local kabaddi coach Subimal Chandra Das conducts training in the capital city recently DHAKA TRIBUNE BANGLADESH IN INTERNATIONAL STAGE South Asian Games Runners-up – 1985, 1987, 1995 Asian Championship Runners-up – 1980, 1989 Asian Games Silver – 1990, 1994, 2002 Bronze – 1998, 2006, 2010, 2014 World Cup Kabaddi Third – 2004, 2007 Indo-Bangla Games Champions – 2007, 2008, 2010 (joint-champions) How was the situation of the country’s kabaddi when you were a player? Not every district were involved in the national championship. Only a few districts took part like Khulna, Jessore, Rajshahi, Tangail, Comilla and Dhaka. The league didn’t take place on a regular basis. Back in our times, two or three national leagues were held. The national championship was held almost every year. The national side got very little opportunitieds to play in international events until 1980 when the Asian Championship was introduced in Kolkata. Bangladesh participated and finished runners-up. Before that, a team from India came to Bangladesh and I was part of that home side. We played two matches in Dhaka, a test in Dinajpur, Faridpur, Jessore and Comilla and a regional game in Tangail. We drew two and lost three and won the regional game in Tangail. How did you get into coaching? After I finished my playing career, I went to Patiala for higher training in 1982. When I returned a year later, the second edition of the South Asian Federation Games was held in Dhaka in 1985. We finished runners-up. Then in 1987 in Kolkata, we again finished second. In 1988 on the occasion of the second Asian Championship in Jaipur, I was the coach of the team. I was also the coach in 1985. That is how I started my coaching career. It would not be right to say I have been consistently the head coach of the national kabaddi team as there were one or two coaches who took the job for a short period. For instance, in 1990 I was part of the coaching team but couldn’t travel with the main side. Kabaddi was introduced in the Asian Games in 1990 in China where Bangladesh won silver. It was the first time Bangladesh, as a team, claimed a medal in the Asian Games. We continued to win medals in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. Do you remember the time when kabaddi was declared the national sport of Bangladesh? The national championship began in 1973. Probably, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announced the game of kabaddi as the national sport in 1974. How were you introduced to kabaddi? Did you play it in your childhood? I was a boy hailing from a small town. I used to play football in my childhood. It was difficult to play football during the rainy season. During that time, we used to play hadu-du. I came to Dhaka in 1973 and since then, I only played kabaddi. During your playing and coaching career, which times do you think were the best for the country’s kabaddi? The game was probably doing better when I was a player. Our results were good. There were majority of civil players during that time. After that, those civil players got jobs in different service teams. As a result, kabaddi struggled. There were still some civil players till 1990 but after four years, there were none in the national team. What are the reasons behind this downfall? Those civil players who played well got job in defence where they practised kabaddi along with their official responsibilities. They kept their fitness in good shape. Civil teams don’t provide enough training facilities to their players. It’s not my personal observation, rather it’s a fact that no player from civil teams have been included in the national team since 1994. Asghar from Tangail was the last player who found a place in the national side in 1994. When a player from a civil team performs well, the defence sides take him and give him a job. Bangladesh crashed out in the group stages in the recently concluded Kabaddi World Cup. How do you evaluate their display? The performance was very disappointing. We had a good team. There was a nice mixture of youth and experience. Out of 14 players, three had the experience of playing in the South Asian Games and Asian Games while only three had SA Games experience. The rest of the players got called up to the side for the first time. They started well but experience and patience cost us the game against Korea. We had to be more patient. Why is kabaddi not developing in Bangladesh, despite the game being a part of the country’s culture. Look at India, who are doing remarkably well..... Not only India, Iran, Korea, Japan and Thailand are also doing great. They give importance to kabaddi. For instance, the Korean team spent three-four months in India. Another main reason is that 64 districts in our country play the game with 128 different rules. They follow regional rules, like kechki and bhugli. Kechki and bhugli are not allowed in professional kabaddi. That is why we don’t get enough players in national level. In Iran, Korea, Japan and Thailand, from school to everywhere else, the rules are the same. India, meanwhile, have been playing with the same style since 1950. Another reason is media. Kabaddi has no live telecast and don’t get much attention in daily news coverage, like cricket or football. We only have five coaches who were trained abroad in India. India have institutions kabaddi in every state. They are now providing two-year courses for the players. We don’t even have kabaddi in BKSP. The guardians are also not interested. Asian Indoor Games Third - 2007 Beach Asian Games Third – 2008, 2010, 2012 1st Women’s World Cup Kabaddi Third- Bangladesh (2012) National Kabaddi Championship First champions: Dinajpur and Faridpur (Joint champions) – 1973 Most titles: Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) – 22 Most runners-up: Bangladesh Police – 14 National Youth Kabaddi Championship (1982-2016) Most titles – Tangail (6), Dinajpur (3), Dhaka (2) Premier Division Kabaddi League (13 editions from 1992-2011) Most Titles – BGB (10) Kabaddi coaches Subimal Chandra Das, Md Abdul Jalil, Abdul Haque, Hamidur Rahman, Abdul Hakim Referees SN Mannan, covered Kabaddi World Cup 2016 final while Mohammad Monir Hossain was the first umpire. Experience of refereeing over a decade. Bangladesh players in Indian Kabaddi League Arduzzaman, Ziaur Rahman (currently retired and assistant coach of Bangladesh), Zakir Hossain, Tuhin Tarafdar
Bangladesh in modern day kabaddi Sport 27 DT THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016 In 1980, the first Asian Kabaddi Championship was held in Kolkata where Bangladesh finished runners-up with India emerging as the champions. Bangladesh became runners-up again in 1988 in the same tournament held in Jaipur Ha-du-du is still being played in rural parts of Bangladesh but has not acquired the rules of modern day kabaddi. After being titled the national sport of Bangladesh in the early 1970s, kabaddi’s fate never improved. Even Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan doesn’t yet have a kabaddi department in its institution. Bangladesh only have five certified kabaddi coaches, out of which only two – Subimal and Abdul Jalil – are active with the Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation. Subimal, who has been involved with Bangladesh kabaddi for more than 40 Action from the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup group stage game between Bangladesh and Argentina years now, remembered a kabaddi tournament held in 1964 at Paltan ground, formerly the location of Wari Club, where a strong local team from Pabna, two sides from Bikrampur and one from Noakhali took part. After the BAKF was formed, Bangladesh first played a kabaddi test in 1974 against visiting India team. The visitors played against the national team and sides from Dhaka, Tangail, Dinajpur, Jessore, Faridpur and Comilla. With the presence of delegates from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, the Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation was founded in 1978 at a conference in the Indian town of Villai. A year later, Bangladesh toured India for a return test, held at different places in the country. INTERNET In 1980, the first Asian Kabaddi Championship was held in Kolkata where Bangladesh finished runners-up with India emerging as the champions. Bangladesh became runners-up again in 1988 in the same tournament held in Jaipur. Kabaddi was included in the Asian Games in Beijing, 1990 where Bangladesh clinched silver. They finished runners-up three more times out of the first four events in 1990, 1994 and 2002 but since then, they have participated in five more Asian Games editions without winning any gold or silver. Iran took over Bangladesh’s place as India’s real contenders as they emerged champion in every edition of Asia’s Olympics. The major reason behind India’s successes is that they included kabaddi in the curriculum as a prime sports discipline for the students in 1961. And 10 years later, the National Institute of Sports included kabaddi in the curriculum of regular diploma courses. It has been quite a while since kabaddi has become a game of service/defence teams competing in the national tournament. Teams like Faridpur, Comilla, Tangail and Jessore used to dominate the national scene in the 1970s but after 1983, different defence teams like Border Guard Bangladesh (formerly known as Bangladesh Rifles) and Bangladesh Police won the National Kabaddi Championship titles in each and every edition till today. Another interesting thing is that since 1995, there has not been a single player in the national kabaddi team who hail from outside service or defence teams. Women’s Kabaddi Although ha-du-du is played all across the rural areas, it is mainly practised by the men. Women’s kabaddi in Bangladesh was not regular before 2005. The national women’s championship was introduced in the mid 1970s when only a few district teams like Dhaka, Khulna, Tangail, Jessore and Rajshahi used to play. After around six years, it was then stopped in 1982. After around a decade with absolutely no activity of women’s kabaddi in the national level, it started to gather momentum again in the 1990s with the introduction of school kabaddi. In 2005, Bangladesh women’s kabaddi team participated in an international tournament for the first time. It was a six-nation international kabaddi tournament held in Hyderabad, India. A year later, women’s kabaddi was introduced in the South Asian Games in Sri Lanka where Bangladesh enjoyed a memorable tournament. Led by head coach Subimal, the team travelled all the way from Dhaka to Madras via Kolkata by road. During their long journey, they played five-six warm-up matches in India before moving to Sri Lanka from where they returned with bronze. They won silver in 2010 and 2014. Currently in the national scene, the top two women’s teams are BJMC and Ansar & VDP because they provide the players job opportunities. The kabaddi duo have been dominating the national women’s tournaments for a while, always finishing among the top two. BJMC have around 25-30 female kabaddi players who each earn Tk7,000-8,000 per month. •
Page 1 and 2: SECOND EDITION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1
Page 3 and 4: News 3 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016
Page 5 and 6: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina exchan
Page 7 and 8: News 7 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016
Page 9 and 10: CHRONICLE World The battle for Alep
Page 11 and 12: World 11 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 201
Page 13 and 14: Dhaka Skill Summit ends calling for
Page 15 and 16: Advertisement 15 DT THURSDAY, DECEM
Page 17 and 18: 17 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016 DT s
Page 19 and 20: Biz Info 19 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15,
Page 21 and 22: What if Assad wins? Opinion 21 Ther
Page 23 and 24: Opinion 23 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2
Page 25: Sport 25 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 201
Page 29 and 30: Downtime 29 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15,
Page 31 and 32: Showtime 31 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15,

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