Bangladesh national basketball team left Dhaka for New Delhi on May 9 to take part in the 27th FIBA Asia Qualifying Basketball Tournament but the team returned to the Dhaka on Wednesday night without playing a single match.
The 2013 FIBA Asia Championship qualifiers for the South Asia zone was postponed seven days ago on May 9, but the Bangladesh Basketball Federation general secretary AK Sarkar said that they did not get any official declaration until May 12. The team, on their way to Delhi by train, stopped in Kolkata and stayed there for five days, according to Sarkar.
"We didn’t know whether the tourney was postponed on May 9 or not but we got the official declaration on May 12. That's why we stayed in Kolkata," Sarkar told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
However, the question remains as what they were doing in Kolkata during this time. Sarkar said they had planned to play two matches against a West Bengal club but the federation general secretary could not remember the club's name.
He also said that one game was called off due to rainfall and the other one was stopped at half time.
Sarkar could not answer why the game was played for just half time. When asked which team they played, he replied, “I can’t remember everything.”
The Asia Qualifying Basketball Tournament was postponed after two of the four participating teams, Pakistan and Afghanistan, were denied visas to enter India. The tournament had been scheduled for May 13-15 in New Delhi.