Sraboni, Shahnaz leave for Korea
Sraboni Biswas and Shahnaz Parvin were scheduled to leave here in the early hours of Tuesday for the Republic of Korea to take part in the sixth Korean Open International Taekwondo Championship and also to receive higher training from a Korean University.
The pair from Ansar has been selected ahead of South Asian gold medallists Sharmin Farzana Rumi and Shammi Akhter raising many eyebrows over the transparency of the selection process.
"Rumi pulled out of the championship due to illness while Shammi has been suffering from fever. Barring them, the two we have chosen are the best available players from the Asian Games' camp. Sraboni won a bronze medal and Shahnaz finished fourth in the SA Games," defended Saydur Rahman Swapon, joint secretary of the executive committee, the tenure of which expired on February.
Swapon said that they have high ambitions with Rumi and Shammi for the upcoming Asian Games which is why they did not take any risk by choosing them for the Korean Open, a tournament where Mizanur Rahman and Raisul Islam won gold medal before the 2010 SA Games at home.
Meanwhile, when contacted Rumi declined to comment on the issue and told that she was busy, and has not received any phone calls since. Shammi too refused to talk after being aware that the caller was a sports reporter.
The strange thing was that no other player of the camp dared talk to the reporters saying that they had no permission to talk to the media. Swapon however denied any such embargo on the players.
However, many alleged that the players have no say over general secretary Mahmudul Hasan Rana, who has been running a dictatorial regime since the establishment of the federation in 1997.
Meanwhile, Sraboni and Shahnaz sounded optimistic and vowed to do well in the Korean Open.
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