Rollball World Cup set to roll out
The way players moved back and forth on the Mansur Ali Handball Stadium's newly painted red surface instantly gave the impression of figure skaters, but teams were actually practising for a little-known sport called Rollball, a relatively new discipline that combines skating, handball and basketball.
Dressed in protective gear and their inline skates, the Latvian men and women along with the Slovenian girls displayed a glimpse of their skills yesterday afternoon, a day before the Rollball World Cup which gets underway today in the capital.
Rollball, which originated in neighbouring India, is not only a little-known sport in Bangladesh but in Latvia, Slovenia and other parts of the world as well.
“Rollball is not popular in our country as the people of Slovenia don't know much about the game. We have only one team but we are trying to make the game popular and we are going to schools to teach students about the game,” said Slovenia women's team captain Nina Lonoar, who has arrived with only five players even though each team features six players during a match.
The Slovenian team comprises players from different disciplines such as ice hockey, inline hockey and basketball while Lonoar herself is an ice hockey player and coach.
Latvian women's team captain Ilze Kronberga is also an ice hockey player but prefers to play rollball in order to meet new people around the world.
“It is something new, interesting and a great opportunity to meet teams we don't play in other sporting competitions. In Latvia, ice hockey is much more popular than basketball but rollball is still unfamiliar,” said Kronberga, who has a profession other than rollball while her teammates are also involved in different professions such as medicine, teaching, etc.
However, Latvian men's team captain Viesturs Cimermanis believes rollball will one day become a popular sport across the globe as he terms it a unique discipline.
“It is a pretty unique game. There is nothing similar being played around the world. There are big opportunities in countries like Bangladesh and India because they have big populations to see it and get knowledge on it. It is getting popular in countries like France, Netherlands, Latvia and Slovenia. What happens in the next five years, I can't predict, but I hope its popularity will go up in the future,” said Cimermanis, who is also an ice hockey aficionado and feels that the Bangladesh weather is 'crazy', having come from a minus-nine degrees celsius environment.
Like Cimermanis, Bangladesh men's team captain Mohammad Asif Iqbal also has big hopes for rollball and believes the game will spread in Bangladesh through this World Cup.
“Rollball is now a known game in Bangladesh and it has good prospect in the future,” said Asif.
“Our international results are not bad. As we became second runners-up in the inaugural Asian Rollball Championship in 2007 and then finished seventh in the last World Cup in India. This time we have set our sights on the final as under local coaches and the Indian coach, we have undergone three-and-a-half months of preparation, which was unusual in the past,” said Asif.
Bangladesh will play their first match against Hong Kong today at the newly-built Sheikh Russel Roller Skating Complex in Paltan.