Coronavirus now hits volleyball
Bangladesh Volleyball Federation (BVF) has deferred the Bangabandhu Asian Senior Men's Central Zone Volleyball Championship after some participating nations expressed reservations connected to the coronavirus outbreak, as well as some financial constraints.
Although there are no infected patients in Bangladesh, teams in the region are reluctant to travel after the outbreak in China's Wuhan, with the International Solidarity World Ranking Archery Championships in Bangladesh also being postponed on Monday.
The meet was scheduled to take place from March 22 to 28 at Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Mirpur with the participation of eight nations -- Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and hosts Bangladesh -- but the championship is now likely to be held in September.
"We did not get a good response as Sri Lanka and one of the central Asian nations wrote to us to express concerns about the coronavirus outbreak while some others told us informally. That's why we, on February 15, decided to defer the championship by six months and hold it in September," BVF general secretary Ashikur Rahman Miku told The Daily Star yesterday.
Miku also said that uncertainty over financial assistance from the youth and sports ministry also played a part in the deferment.
"The ministry had told us they would provide financial assistance to organise the tournament but we are still in the dark about whether we will get that help," said Miku. "We could have organised the championship by managing sponsorships like before but we could not do it because the BVF president [Atiqul Islam] was busy in the DNCC election campaign."
National team captain Horosit Biswas believes the deferment will help them achieve better results as they needed at least four months' preparation to regain the title they clinched in the 2016 edition held in Dhaka.
"We lacked preparation because players scattered after the National Championship. We were also supposed to go to Iran to avail better training facilities for two months but we could not because of the political crisis between Iran and America," Biswas told The Daily Star yesterday.
Biswas informed that they will go after the completion of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Games to be held from April 1 and have uninterrupted training until the championship.
"We will compete in the ABC Challenge Cup in Kyrgyzstan in June featuring teams like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand. It is a better tournament than the Central Zone championship, so it will help us perform better at home in September."