Big blow before the get-go

Before even a single fixture of the Hero Asia Cup hockey tournament took the ground, hosts Bangladesh suffered a huge blow as midfielder Sarwar Hossain was ruled out by the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF).

Not only did the AHF punish Sarwar but also the whole Bangladesh team as they will be made to play the first three matches with 17 players instead of 18.

Sarwar was kept in the 18-member squad which was declared on October 29, with an aim of playing him in the place-deciding matches after three group-stage matches, despite the midfielder facing a three-match international suspension following his offense in the Hockey World League Round-2 in Dhaka this March.

“Sarwar was initially suspended for three matches for his offense in Hockey World League Round-2 in Dhaka but the disciplinary committee of FIH revived it and increased the punishment to five matches considering the depth of his offense which is a level-3 offense.

“FIH let BHF know it in April through mail but unfortunately, I was not informed about the punishment by the BHF officials and so we included Sarwar in the final squad and the AHF informed us of it again yesterday [Wednesday],” said BHF general secretary Abdus Sadeque.

Coach Mahbub Harun added that they will call up a midfielder from the stand-by players as a replacement for Sarwar, who was not in his original plan for the first three stage matches.