‘Pirates now familiar foes’

With all attention grabbed by the ODI series between Bangladesh and Ireland following a historic T20 series win over world champions England, sports lovers have hardly noticed the arrival of a certain foreign outfit in Seychelles, who are slated to play two friendly matches against hosts Bangladesh in Sylhet tomorrow and on Tuesday.

Seychelles, known as the Pirates, reached Sylhet on Wednesday night after landing in Dhaka earlier in the afternoon, and had their first training session at the BKSP ground yesterday.

"Seychelles are now a familiar opponent," said Bangladesh assistant coach Hasan Al Mamun yesterday. However, it's worth recalling how, as far as the country's football fans are concerned, Seychelles had been an almost completely unknown footballing entity until they were invited to play the 2020 Bangabandhu Gold Cup in Dhaka.

And expectedly, Seychelles could hardly impress the spectators with their performance in the aforementioned six-nation tournament but the Pirates moved into the last four from three-team group, courtesy of a superior goal-difference.

It was learned that most Seychelles footballers, hailing from a tiny nation with around one-lakh population situated in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa, are amateurs and play football after managing their individual jobs.

Despite being tagged an amateur side, Seychelles were organised and disciplined to give the ultimate champions Palestine a run for their money before suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat in the semi-finals.

Bangladesh could not face Seychelles in Dhaka as the two were drawn in different groups, but the men in red and green met Seychelles in a neutral venue in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo in 2021 during the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Trophy. In that encounter, despite their players suffering a lot of muscle cramps, Seychelles came from behind to play a 1-1 draw with Bangladesh. The islanders went on to leave Colombo by clinching the four-nation trophy, placing them ahead of finalists Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Bangladesh.

Similar to Bangladesh's glorious past in football, Seychelles had a good run as they won a silver medal in the first Indian Ocean Islanders Games in 1979 before they bagged bronze medals in the 1985, 1998, and 2003 editions. They also held teams like Zambia and Namibia and have beaten Zimbabwe during FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in early 2000s.

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) may anticipate an improvement in FIFA rankings after playing against the 199-ranked Seychelles, but the task is not going to be easy one for the charges of Spanish coach Javier Cabrera, who has been preparing the men in red and green for nearly two weeks at home and aboard.

Last year the physically superior Seychellois played nine international matches in which they could not taste a win, but they drew thrice against Mauritius, Lesotho, and San Marino, while defeats in home and away matches against Botswana, Angola, Comoros, and Madagascar showed their fighting character.

Bangladesh, however, tasted a win against Cambodia in eight international matches they played last year in which the men in red and green could draw against Mongolia and Indonesia. Now it remains to be seen who can win in a battle between two equally matched sides.