8th Bangladesh Games 2013 Poor planning excludes many athletes

                                                         8th Bangladesh Games 2013

                      Poor planning excludes many athletes

 

Parul Akhtar splits on the balance beam during a practice session at the NSC Gymnasium yesterday, ahead of the 8th Bangladesh Games which starts on Saturday. PHOTO: STAR

A great number of athletes from different disciplines will be deprived from any national level participation due to the hasty arrangement of the eighth Bangladesh Games which will be held from April 20 to 28.
 

Generally the federations do not hold their respective national championships in the year Bangladesh Games is held as the national championships of different disciplines are incorporated into the Games while giving opportunities to all the athletes to compete, but this time a big number of athletes will not get the opportunity due to the pattern of the Games.
Instead of ensuring participation of all athletes from across the country, the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA), organiser of the Bangladesh Games, put the ball to the respective federations’ courts to decide the pattern of their games and most of the federations prepared the participants list on the basis of the standings of their last national championships citing the limited budget allotted by Organising Committee of Bangladesh Games.
The Bangladesh Handball Federation held their last national meet with 36 men’s and 30 women’s teams, but the handball event of the 8th Bangladesh Games will see only 12 teams each in men’s and women’s section, resulting in majority of players missing out on national level participation.
Like handball, the hockey federation has chosen top 12 teams of the last national championship where 21 teams had taken part while the volleyball federation decided to hold their men’s event for the Bangladesh Games with 10 teams from among 31 teams that participated in the last national championship.
Disciplines like kabaddi, table tennis, basketball, cycling and chess have also cut down the number of participants, depriving majority of athletes from taking part in the country’s biggest sporting extravaganza whereas pre-planned measures from BOA could have ensured their participation in all disciplines.
 

“It is not possible to ensure the participation of all affiliated bodies in the Bangladesh Games with the budget that the BOA allotted for us,” said a hockey official yesterday, seeking anonymity.
He however believes that ensuring mass participation could have been ensured if BOA had instructed respective federations to manage their own sponsors to carry out a part of the expenditure.
An organiser informed that he was forced to keep four to five teams out of his discipline due to budget constraint even though those teams had a great enthusiasm to take part in the Bangladesh Games which is being held after 11 years.
 

The newly-elected committee of BOA, which has been in place for only two and a half months in office, has hurriedly arranged the Bangladesh Games, giving different federations little time to react which ultimately turned the games into an academic affair.