Hockey league playoff next month

Defending champions Dhaka Mariner Youngs Club and title-rivals Abahani were unanimous in their opposition to playing the playoff of the Green Delta Insurance Dhaka Premier Division Hockey League on Sunday, asking Bangladesh Hockey Federation to arrange a later date for the title-deciding match.

Both teams ended the league on top with 37 points from 15 matches – two more than Mohammedan, who had refused to play the remaining 18 minutes of their game against Abahani on Friday in protest of an umpiring decision, with the federation forced to declare Abahani the winners of the game.

Following the bylaws of the league, the federation had asked Abahani and Mariners to play the playoff to decide the winners on Sunday. However, neither team were willing to play, citing release of their players.

Abahani manager Mahbub Harun said they want to play the game at a later date. "Four of our players from Bangladesh Air Force are travelling to India, so we can't play the playoff at the moment. We have already informed the federation about this. We are willing to play the match after they return on May 1," Harun told The Daily Star on Saturday night.

Mariners general secretary Ahsanullah Khan Rana echoed the same sentiment.

"We have notified the federation that we can only play the playoff after a certain time, as two of our players including top-scorer Sohanur Rahman Sabuj is accompanying the Air Force team to India. We have also released our local players and our foreigners have left too," Rana said. "Once the federation arranges a new date, we will bring our players and have a fitness camp before playing."

Later in the night, federation's general secretary Mominul Haque informed that they will try to arrange the match next month.

"After receiving letters from the clubs, we had a meeting which decided to send the governing body a new application for sanctioning funds for that match. We will try to arrange the match some time next month," Mominul told The Daily Star.

It may be added that there were two instances where in 2010 and 2014 when two teams were declared joint champions.