Booters left stranded

The players of the Bangladesh national football team and part of its coaching staff were left stranded at the Taj Hotel in Trivandrum, Kerala yesterday after most of the team officials left for Dhaka by an early morning flight. Six of the team officials -- team leader Iqbal Hossain, team manager Amirul Islam Babu, media manager, team doctor, a Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) observer, a representative of a BFF vice-president and head coach Maruful Haque -- were part of the contingent which took the early flight.

Only four of the coaching staff -- assistant coach, goalkeeping coach, physiotherapist and team attendant -- stayed back with the 20 players and they are expected to fly back to Dhaka in two phases -- 10 by a Thursday morning flight and the remaining 14 by a flight the following morning.

A BFF spokesman denied the suggestion that the players and part of the coaching staff were left behind without any responsible person there to handle the logistical affairs.

"It's not appropriate to say that they [the officials] have left the players,” BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag said when contacted over phone. “All our tickets were booked for January 5 according to our initial plan. However, due to the unavailability of flights [air tickets] at this peak season, it was difficult to acquire so many tickets for an earlier date.

"We could only manage seven tickets, which were assigned according to the serial of the team list made available to the airlines authorities, for the Tuesday morning flight. However, the authorities have assured us that they will try to arrange the other tickets if any vacancy opens up for a date earlier than December 31 or January 1.

This explanation, though, was hardly any consolation to the players, who had ended their sorry campaign with a 3-0 victory over Bhutan on Tuesday night.  They players were visibly annoyed at being left behind and they either loitered around at the hotel lobby or stayed confined inside their rooms for most of the day before attending a recovery session in the afternoon.

One of the players, on condition of anonymity, said that it was quite unthinkable 'being left behind by their guardians who were supposed be guide and shield them.'

Assistant coach Zulfiqar Mahmud Mintu, too, could not hide his frustration at the state of affairs. He however said that he would do his best to look after the fitness of the players, who are supposed to participate in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament, scheduled to kick off on January 8.

“This is not how it should have been. Since our SAFF campaign is over, we will probably not get any practice facilities here in the remaining days,” Mintu said. “However, I will conduct the recovery sessions in the hotel gym and swimming pool so that the fitness level of the players doesn't fall.”