BHF gets ad-hoc solution
The National Sports Council (NSC) yesterday formed a 31-member ad-hoc committee of the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF), dissolving the executive committee whose tenure expired on July 30 last year.
Abdus Sadeque, who served as general secretary of the troubled federation for two years after the late Khaja Rahmatullah was forced to stand down from the hot seat following non-cooperation from some leading clubs in 2015, has been retained as general secretary of the new committee. Air Chief Marshal Abu Esrar will be acting as president, just like the previous tenure.
The committee witnessed the departure of some heavyweights like Mohammedan Sporting Club's Shafiuallah Al Munir, Usha KC's Rafiqul Islam Kamal and Mamunur Rashid, a former national player also loyal to Usha.
The NSC also asked the ad-hoc committee to prepare for the federation's elections as soon as possible.
But Sadeque considered this shake-up as an opportunity to get the domestic calendar, especially the all-important Premier Hockey League which was last held in 2016, back on track.
“Our first priority is to hold the national hockey camp for the upcoming qualifying tournament for Asian Games and then hold the players' transfers for Premier Hockey League,” said Sadeque.
The Premier League is not only the most important event in the domestic calendar but also serves as the prime source of income for the players. The BHF could only hold the league five times in the last 10 years, mainly due to the rift between the top clubs which was aggravated during the tenure of the Rahmatullah-led executive board.
Asked if all the clubs would honour a transfer date, which the federation had to defer on a number of occasions, Sadeque said: “The representatives of all Premier League clubs are in the committee, so there will be no problem to hold the Premier League I personally believe.”
Regarding the election, the former national player said that his priority would be to hold the Annual General Meeting, where he would like to propose amendments to the constitution so that they can have a paid general secretary instead of an honorary one in the future.
He also felt that it would ease a lot of tension and infighting in the federation.
Earlier, the NSC had suspended the August 27 polls citing the worsening flood situation across the country last year and directed the then elected committee to proceed with BHF activities ahead of October's Asia Cup Hockey tournament in Dhaka.
There was virtually no step from the NSC to resume the election process after general secretary candidate former hockey player Rahmatullah, who was supposed to contest against Abdur Rashid Shikdar, died of cardiac arrest two days after the completion of Asia Cup Hockey.
However, though belatedly, the NSC move served as step towards breaking the stalemate.