Our resolution for the World cup

AFTER an intense four year waiting the world's most favourite sporting event has kicked off yesterday. As millions of Bangladeshis lift the flags of their favourite teams all eyes are fixed on Brazil. At the time when the country is gripped by football - fever, exactly what is the state of our football team? Not only are we far behind in terms of Asian standards but our FIFA ranking has also gone down. It is currently 167, and the best ever was 116 some 21 years ago.
When it comes to world football we have been more instrumental in supporting, cheering while hoisting the respective country flags of the international football giants, but rarely have we attempted to pick up their style, technique and skills and incorporate them in us. With passing of each World Cup only the scenes of cheer and sorrow keep repeating in our case?
True, that most of our Bangladeshi players, like the masses admire more the Latin teams than the European ones. But can anyone confirm if our players ever to have mimicked at least a stroke of Latin skills which they admire in their superstars? What lessons have they drawn from the one dozen or so world cup tournaments that have passed since our independence? Not much.
A major problem with our national team has been that it never focused on achieving smaller goals for reaching a bigger target. Our players too have been inconsistent in terms of performance. For instance, within the subcontinent we are still not the best and for catching up with the Korean standards, we really need to work hard. But the systematic and consistent growth of our national team in terms of performing has never happened.
Our participating in the soccer's global event will not come any time soon, but the gaps need to be addressed: up to which standard we want to take our football? And what should be done in that regard? Not from the soccer-giants, but from the first-time qualifiers and smaller teams we have to learn how they made their way to Brazil.
Against the setting of soccer's biggest frenzy the message for our booters and Football Federation is: You may not be as big as your superstar, but if you truly admire him you can also make the effort to play like him too. Don't just copy their hairstyles and romanticize for having a glamour-queen girlfriend like they have. Some of our players' fascination with Cristiano Ronaldo reminds me of the legend Imran Khan - not his cricket career but whose glamour and private life  once became our subject of discussion. However, in the end our 2014 World cup resolution is to take team Bangladesh to an international stage. For that to happen we must focus on how to be the best in our region first, and the rest will follow.

The writer is Current Affairs analyst, The Daily Star.
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