CHENNAI: Cyclone Ditwah seemed to have weakened after hitting Sri Lanka but the rainband moving towards North Tamil Nadu left the city drenched in heavy rain. It was gloomy and the blue turf was wetter than usual and sluggish at times. Yet in the middle there was sunshine for a team that has made its debut at the Junior Hockey World Cup.
For a country that is obsessed to the point madness with cricket and football, hockey is considered a growing sport. Of late, though, there has been an upsurge. The junior team secured its first ever appearance at the U-21 World Cup last December and back home despite political upheaval and unrest the team managed to stay away from it.
It was there to witness for everybody on Saturday with Aminul Islam standing in the middle, fists clenched, hands raised and letting out a deafening yell. He scored his third goal – a hattrick in hockey parlance. Though the team was on the losing side against traditional powerhouse Australia, 3-5 scoreline was a kind of emancipation. Like one top hockey official of the country pointed out, sports speaks universal language and it helps people let out their emotions. It can act as a balm for a country facing political unrest and instability.
Bangladesh since last year has been going through some torrid times. Yet this bunch of boys kept practicing untouched by the turmoil outside. Coach Dutch Siegfried Aikman also joined them and had been with the team for the last four months albeit with a small break before the tournament.
Secretary of the Bangladesh Hockey Federation Riazul Hasan spoke about how the team prepared and followed a programme finalised right after the team qualified for the junior World Cup in Chennai. He also said that travelling to India was not a hassle. “We never had any doubts about travelling,” he said. “In fact the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and Hockey India helped us a lot.”
When it comes to hockey, Hasan said the boys never faced any kind of interruption due to political problems either. “Once they qualified for the World Cup, we made a programme, a five-month programme to train the team. And none of the federations, including Bangladesh Hockey Federation, were affected anyway with the events that happened, we may call it politics or whatever it is.”
“We totally followed our programme set up by our federation. Practising in the country, playing matches in the country, playing matches abroad, and then coming down to Chennai. What we did was, since it was the first World Cup in hockey, we came here ten days before the event started to acclimatise.” He pointed out that the Bangladesh team, U-18 onwards, played seven international tournaments. And the result on Saturday was more than satisfactory.
Siddharth Pandey, who has been associated with Bangladesh hockey for the past one and half years and is also a coach in Abahani Dhaka said that the bunch of junior players are the best the country has produced. "They need to continue with their training like they are doing right now and in future they could be as good as other top teams like South Korea or Pakistan. India, of course, are far too ahead of the lot.
"If they keep this batch together for the next 10 years with coaches such as Aikman, they will do improve a lot," said the coach cum commentator. "I am involved with Bangladesh hockey and I have seen the league inside and out. This team and this country could be a rising force in Asian hockey in the next 10 years. If they are able to do that, after India, this team could be competing with Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia, all of these teams, that is the potential that these boys have."
Impact of women's programme
It is not just in junior men’s hockey that the romance lies, it’s also in their young women’s programme. For a country that doesn’t have a senior team, this age group tournament has shown glimpses of hidden potential in the hinterland.
Young girls are taking up hockey from remote regions of the country. It is becoming a vehicle for social change. Hasan was quite animated while speaking about it. He said that they started the programme along with Bangladesh sports institute because they found girls were more attracted towards the sport. “It’s quite interesting,” he said. “We started with the women's hockey because we found that there are quite a number of girls who are interested in playing.” The U18 team won a bronze at the U18 Asia Cup.
Hasan said they are organising a tournament for the women – U18 and U21 – across the country. And the format is quite interesting. The women's set-up is something like that. “We have got very dedicated people, men and women. And our target areas are Jashore, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Dinajpur, Mymensingh,” Hasan said. “The first phase is already over. In the second phase, we have 10 teams participating and another eight will participate. And after that, from these 18 teams, we will bring up five teams. And they will participate in the final phase.”
Their goal is quite simple. They already have a senior men’s team but through the grassroots programme they are hoping to build a strong women’s team. Their first match over, Bangladesh would be hoping to better their performances in the next outing against South Korea on Sunday.