Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) handed a lifetime ban from all kind of hockey activities to the Hockey Players' Welfare Association president Russell Khan Bappi yesterday for assaulting national head coach Naveed Alam on Monday. Former national player and general secretary of HPWA Ariful Haque Prince has been handed a 10-year ban while Asaduzzaman Chondon (Abahani), ShamsuddinTuhin and Ashikuzzaman (Sonali) also received five-year bans each for having been with Bappi during the incident in question.
The federation also banned former ad-hoc committee member and hockey organiser Shahidullah Dolon for five years for sending threatening SMSs to national forward Russell Mahmud Jimmy.
Bappi, the former national custodian who played for Usha last season, reportedly threw a chair at the newly appointed Bangladesh's Pakistani coach Naveed at the dining hall of the hockey federation on Monday. BHF general secretary Khwaja Rahmatullah said they will take further legal action against Bappi. "It's just BFF's decision to ban him (Bappi). The legal actions will also be taken against him. The police will investigate the whole thing and give the punishment that he deserves," said Khwaja.
Vice-president of BHF Abdus Sadeq revealed the decisions after a three-hour emergency meeting yesterday. "I want to apologize to the coach for such behavior. FIH could have taken action for such occurrence which would not be good for us - Bappi banned for lifetime for every kind of hockey activities, Prince will serve 10-year ban while Chondon, Ashik and Tuhin will be banned for five years. About Jimmy's case, Dolon has been given five-year ban. Legal actions will also be taken as both BHF and Jimmy filed general diaries against him."
Naveed also admitted that he placed a written complaint to the federation to take action against those who came to the dining hall and forced players not to come to the hockey ground. He also slammed the Hockey players' Welfare Association (HPWA).
"They (HPWA) are doing this to fulfill their own personal interest - not to help the national players. If they were trying to support the players, they wouldn't do such things," said Naveed.
The BHF claimed that players were given Tk5,000 each to not join the camp. Afterwards, they informed the players that if they did not join the camp by 4pm, they were free to leave the camp, reminded them about the code of conduct and told them about the security measures that had been taken for the camp. Afterwards, all the players who were selected have joined the Asia Cup training camp.
Naveed also dismissed the possibility of taking the matter to FIH. "It's an internal matter. I'm not part of FIH now, I'm part of BHF. I don't want anyone to get involved in our internal matter, it's matter of Bangladesh and finally we sort out our problems."
Federation vice-president Abdur Rashid said that it would not be possible to hold the players' transfer window before the Asia Cup, but guarenteed that it will be the federation's first priority after the Asia Cup. Khwaja added that the federation had talked to the presidents of Ajax, Wonderers Club, Wari and Mariners and hoped to solve the problem soon.
Meanwhile, the banned Prince and Bappi appeared to be not be surprised by the bans handed to them. Prince said, "After four months, when BNP takes the charge of the government, I will give him (Khwaja) a five-year ban for making the federation polluted and corrupted."
Speaking of the decision, Bappi said, "I'm not surprised as these all are pre-planned. They ban us for raising our voice against injustice. If we get ban, then Dolon deserves to get hanged." He also claimed that the federation used the Rab and police to intimidate players into attending the ongoing camp.