Camp forced to a halt

National hockey team coach Naveed Alam (R) tries to convince the Hockey Players' Welfare Association members yesterday not to boycott the camp, but to no avail. PHOTO: STAR

The national hockey camp was forcefully halted by the Hockey Players' Welfare Association (HPWA) yesterday, leading to unsavoury incidents at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium. The HPWA leaders, led by its president Rasel Khan Bappi and general secretary Ariful Haque Prince, refrained the players from the camp and allegedly assaulted the national team's Pakistani coach Naveed Alam as he was trying to convince the players to join the camp.
This incident comes three days ahead of the deadline set by the sports minister Ahad Ali Sarker to reach a solution for the inter-club players' transfers. The players, under the banner of HPWA, have been demanding transfers for the last two and a half months and they had already boycotted the camp for 15 days and skipped the camp quite a few times to meet their demands.
But the situation got out of hand yesterday noon when the HPWA members came up with a two-point demand before the media – demand for taking legal action against Shahidullah Dolon who sent the threatening text message to Russel Mahmud Jimmy and for taking a decision to hold the inter-club players' transfers within the next 24 hours – before imposing the boycott. When asked why they imposed the boycott even before the deadline set by the minister has expired, the HPWA leaders could not come up with a satisfactory answer.
The HPWA leaders even set watch on the field so that the national players could not join the training session in afternoon. “Prince Bhai asked us not to join the camp and we skipped training to avoid any unwanted situation,” said a national player seeking anonymity. Another player claimed that they have been bribed to leave the camp.
Of the 25-member squad, 12 players -- seven from services teams and five from BKSP – who are not eligible for the transfers, did not dare join the camp in fear of retribution from the leaders of HPWA. As the coach Naveed was trying to assure the players, the HPWA president and others charged at him, hurled abusive words and threw a chair to frighten him. “This is unwanted and shameful. If they have an issue with the federation, they should take that issue to the authority. Why they charge me and bar my players from the camp? Things like these will portray a bad image of Bangladesh's hockey before the world and Bangladesh may face bans from IHF if such things continue,” said Naveed over the phone.
There are whispers in the sports arena that some 20 senior players, who have already been paid by an organiser ahead of the transfers, along with a couple of former players have been trying to jeopardize the newly-elected committee and pave way for an ad-hoc committee to take it's place.
“The interest of the national hockey team should be considered above everything and it is painful to see the national camp postponed. Postponing the camp is like going against the nation,” said BHF general secretary Rahmatullah.
The 18-member final squad for the Asia Cup was supposed to be selected on Tuesday after two trial matches in two days before sending it to the AHF by July 31, but the process has now been halted due to the boycott.
In the wake of the latest incidents, the Bangladesh Hockey Federation has called for an emergency meeting of the governing body today where a tough decision might be taken against the HPWA, it was learnt.