‘A positive mentality has been instilled in society’

Before calling time in 2002, celebrated sportsperson Zobera Rahman Linu emerged champion in the national women's table tennis championship for a record 16 times. And later, apart from working as the general secretary of Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation for one term, she served as the vice president of Bangladesh Cycling Federation. Linu, who is now the chairman of the Athletes Commission of Bangladesh Olympic Association, expressed her views to The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman about the state of the country's sports while addressing the persistent organisational limitations.

The Daily Star (DS): What's your view on Bangladesh's sporting progress in the past 50 years?

Zobera Rahman Linu (ZRL): During this period, the progression in sports has not gone as much as we had expected even though some sectors of the country have improved. In sports, especially in women's sports, I think cricket, football and archery have thrived a bit compared to other disciplines. 

DS: Why did the country's sports lag behind compared to other sectors?

ZRL: I think the organisers have to bear some burden of failure to take the country's sports ahead and simultaneously, the athletes haven't been able to shine. Although I must admit, a few federations have started grooming the players from grassroots but most federations are out of such action. Another point, the athletes tend to come from insolvent families and prioritise on ensuring basic financial security first, so their focus gets divided producing neither good performances nor good earnings. If the athletes received handsome salaries, then they could have produced worthy performances with undiverted attention to the game.

DS: As the federations themselves struggle to run their yearly activities, how can the athletes' financial security be ensured to extract maximum output?

ZRL: This responsibility does not only fall on the federations. Rather, I think the government should come forward to patronising the athletes who are doing exceedingly well and show great potential for the nation. And the sponsors, who have social responsibility to take the country's sports ahead, generally swarm around the big games like cricket and football and hardly pay attention to the less popular ones. Also the government could also lure the sponsors by exempting tax and VAT to invest more.   

DS: Could you compare the restrictions between your playing time with the current one?

ZRL: I came into sports without facing any type of hindrances because our family was sports-oriented with my father playing sports too. However, most athletes faced some restrictions at that time. Despite the limitations, there was no big financial barrier, which is now the big hurdle for the current crop of athletes. If they can't get out of the financial trouble from playing sports, then big expectations from them are not justified.

DS: But do you imply that currently there are no restrictions from society and family to come into sports?

ZRL: Women are now playing football apart from athletics, swimming, handball etc. That means a positive mentality has been instilled in society but the uncertain future and financial inconsistency come in the way of women athletes.

DS: What will you say about the physical harassment women athletes often face?   

ZRL: Well, it depends on the individual and such things are not exclusive to sports as it happens in other sectors, including educational coaching centres. I think a woman athlete has to learn how to protect herself because most women come from needy families and feel shy when such things happen to them. If the athletes come from a solvent family, they would dare to protest it.

However, I think the federations could take some initiatives to make women's rights organisations aware of any problematic situation as well as seriously take complaints from the athletes to nip things at the bud.

DS: Is the federation providing the proper facilities to facilitate the growth of players?

ZRL: From my working experience in Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation and Bangladesh Cycling Federation, I think the federations try to provide the proper facilities for the betterment of the athletes but they can't accomplish due to financial constraints. A federation struggles to complete their yearly campaign while bearing the office expenses within its budget, and therefore they can't design special training programmes for the athletes with lack of sponsors in play.

DS: Where do you want to see your country's sports in future?

ZRL: Of course, I desire to see the country's sports reach greater heights internationally and locally. To set Bangladesh's sports in a good direction, we must be visionaries and set long-term objectives, in which we have to first target the SA [South Asian] Games and then the Asian Games and Olympics since we lag far behind internationally. If we want to produce good results in SA Games, we must run an uninterrupted long-term training and obviously the Youth and Sports Ministry will have to assist on all fronts.