For a nation historically marred by sustainable spells of political instability, environmental challenges, health distresses, humanitarian concerns and economic inequality, there are certain rare, but wonderful occasions where Bangladeshis unite under the same roof to celebrate a collective achievement.
Via its unique character, charm, and charisma -- sports across human history has acted as a principal conduit to bring people together in the spirit of community and celebration. The passion for sports in a densely-populated and intensely communal Bangladesh is as such, no different.
Nevertheless, while the country has witnessed acclaimed stars such as Kazi Salahuddin, Mashrafe Mortaza, or Rani Hamid make headway in their sport of choice, Bangladesh’s holistic performance in the international sporting arena and its lack of institutional professionalism remains disappointing to say the least -- such in my opinion, is a reflection of the lack of streamlined and accountable investment strategies in sports, and the unfortunate reality of disappearing recreational facilities across the country.
Therefore, given the culture, history, and demography of modern Bangladesh, in tandem with the potentially untapped room in sports development and recreation, cultivating a state-led sporting culture is irrefutably paramount when it comes to enhancing youth development and welfare.
Mahmud Hossain OpuHistory: From Shadhin Bangla Football Dol to hosting the ICC World Cup
In 2017, the prominent international magazine VICE published an article which evaluated the role of footballing revolutionaries during the struggle for independence in 1971 -- it was a fascinating recollection of how stalwarts of the yesteryears such as Zakaria Pintoo, Kazi Salahuddin, Protap Hazra and others, joined hands to use their profession as a means to create awareness and raise humanitarian funds with respect to the Liberation War -- the Shadhin Bangla Football Dol played its first game at Kolkata in July 1971, in front of a jam-packed audience and in the presence of members of the War-Time Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed.
Interestingly, the players hoisted the national flag months prior to India’s formal recognition of Bangladeshi independence -- which journalists deemed deeply symbolic and political in nature, and akin to a public call for immediate recognition from the Indira Gandhi-led government.
On the other end, cricketers Shaheed Jewel and Mushtaque amongst others, were killed in action by the Pakistani military -- and as the new country was born, the government of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman created national bodies to take ownership of the development of sports in Bangladesh -- and as such, be de facto guardians of sporting professional across the country.
The 1980s and 1990s saw a deeply competitive club culture in domestic sports -- football and cricket in particular, saw rapidly growing interest amongst fans, often as a medium of recreation, relaxation, and community.
First radios and then television transformed how sports was channelled to its audience -- increasing the base of sporting fans across the country. It is important to note that club rivalries were popular even during the Pakistan-era -- a restricted number of Bengalis actually represented the national team or competed in international events, and therefore domestic club enmities formed the core of sporting fanfare and curiosity.
Those who broke the glass ceiling, became part of sporting folklore.
The regimes of Generals Zia and Ershad, both men from the military who saw sports as a vehicle for youth engagement, administered periods of investment in a diverse range of sports -- chess, hockey, basketball, and other less popular sports, witnessed state-led policy attention in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In what was a rare positive outcome of the turbulent presidency of HM Ershad, the national sporting institute of Bangladesh BKSP was established in 1986 -- creating a platform to holistically support the growth of sports and be a concrete medium for the professional development of athletes.
Active participation in athletics in the Asian Games, and the impressive achievements in cricket in particular in the 1990s, saw the dawn of a new era in Bangladeshi sports. The country’s victory in the 1997 ICC trophy, followed by its participation in the 1999 ICC World Cup and subsequently acquiring Test-playing status in 2000, clearly established the prominence and place of cricket at the heart of society.
With time, cricket has seen unparalleled traction and become the categorical face of sports, both professionally, and perhaps along with football, recreationally for the younger generation -- at the same time, both the state and corporate stakeholders have shown a principal commercial interest in cricket, resulting in financial capital being directed towards the sport in a manner never witnessed before in history.
The hosting of ICC events -- particularly the co-organization of the 2011 ICC World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka, exemplified Bangladesh’s vocal interest to be a regional cricketing leader and a hub for international sporting events.
The sad alternate reality however of the 21st century has been the rapid, systematic, and unfortunate decline of professional football -- from a lack of credible infrastructural systems to a decline in policy interest, football, which was once the ultimate Bengali sport, has taken an undisputed back seat to cricket.
And perhaps -- so have other sports, as leading media houses and corporate sponsors direct financial support towards cricket in its most lucrative ecosystem.
In individual sports, Siddukur Rahman has made headway in international golf -- however golf historically remains a sport for the elite and powerful. Table tennis on the other hand, has remained a constant presence in its own niche way across different social groups -- played both professionally, and recreationally across schools, universities, and homes.
Mountaineering, interestingly, has picked up pace in recent times, with the likes of Wasfia Nazreen making history after climbing the Seven Summits and receiving global praise for her achievements.
Therefore, in a nutshell, a positive and competitive sporting culture exists in varying layers across Bangladeshi society -- there is a definitive history and story behind the rise of sports in the country, where the industry and what it represents has acted as a major mechanism for recreation in a society, often represented by a deeply passionate and vocal national audience.
Recreation policy and shrinking playgrounds
Let us take a step back from all the glory and glamour -- and focus on grassroot sports and youth recreation for a brief moment.
The foundation of success in sports development has to be looked at through multidimensional lenses -- a bottom-up lens which analyzes sporting culture through the perspective of safe and abundant recreational spaces across urban and rural centres, and a top-down lens which measures and holds to account formal institutions that support the national development of sports.
Generally speaking, the past two decades has seen unfortunate policy failures when it comes to protecting and promoting recreational spaces in high density communities across the country. Dhaka for example has witnessed a drop in the number of playgrounds to a mere 24 from 150 in the past 22 years, according to RAJUK -- 37 out of 129 wards in the Dhaka North and South City Corporations have no recreational parks for children, who represent about 40% of the total metropolitan population.
In recent years, civil society forums such as the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s Association (BELA) have taken on political machos, building developers, and in certain cases, the government, with the aim of protecting playgrounds from commercial interests.
This year itself saw locals in the Kalabagan area and green activists protest a move to build a police station in the capital’s Tentultala. Several protestors were harassed, with a mother-son duo distressingly being arrested by state authorities, in reaction to demonstrations condemning the planned takeover of the playground -- creating uproar on social media and forcing a direct intervention by none other than Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who reminded her colleagues in government about her intention to protect parks and playgrounds, and foster a positive sporting culture.
While the Tentuntala playground has been secured for now with the active participation of conscientious community members, the prime minister’s statement is seen by many as an empty and ambiguous promise.
A lack of targeted policy focus towards developing playgrounds and sporting facilities across Dhaka and other cities, a simultaneous ambivalence towards protecting existing recreational facilities from the whims of commercial enterprise, and of course, the continued annexation of parks by developers in the recent past, is indicative of the status quo which exists when it comes to youth welfare -- there is a tendency to criticize this generation of children for spending too much time on their digital devices, but one should perhaps emphasize the absence of community playgrounds and sporting facilities, as a key reason for this.
At the crux of investing in a positive sporting culture remains an immediate need to focus on grassroot sports, recreation, and playgrounds -- and this unfortunately is absent in the context of youth development policy in Bangladesh.
Dhaka TribunePolitics and sports: Institutional bodies and their roles
A key barrier towards professional growth for sporting organizations is the politicization of domestic sporting clubs such as Mohameddan and Abahani -- and corruption through the misuse of budgetary funds allocated for sports development.
In 2019, the nation was formally informed of what was a well-known piece of information -- premier associations such as Victoria Sporting Club, Mohameddan and Dilkusha Club pioneered illegal casino businesses in Bangladesh, with further complaints of involvement in trafficking and drug-trade voiced across the media.
Representative of a public perception against the political workers of the regime in power, junior to mid-level youth leaders from the Awami League, were accused of corrupting sporting organizations and clubs across the country, by using these platforms as personal cash cows -- sports clubs have unfortunately as a result, become vehicles to amass illegal wealth, rather than being central points of sports development.
Corruption and a lack of accountability are perhaps justifiable expressions that can be attached to the Bangladesh Football Federation BFF as well -- with its president, a once celebrated national icon, but deemed presently as an organizational autocrat, regularly facing the heat of the media for the BFF’s inability to effectively invest state and FIFA resources towards footballing infrastructure and grassroot development programs.
He and several prominent organizers have been accused of corruption, most notably by the Anti-Corruption Commission. The poor health of football is therefore a direct reflection of wider allegations of poor governance and mismanagement directed towards sporting bodies -- and more specifically complaints against organizational stakeholders who have prioritized personal welfare over sporting development.
In a one-of-a-kind empirical investigation styled The Global Corruption Report 2016, Transparency International analyzed the governance challenges of the Bangladesh Cricket Board BCB and its income-generation mechanisms with respect to match fixing and betting scandals, the corporate structures of teams in the flagship BPL T20 tournament, the categorical ignorance towards the Premier League and domestic infrastructural development, and of course, the severe politicization of the administrative body.
Therefore, when the most influential and well-funded sports body is challenged with long-term administrative and policy hurdles, and questions of a lack of professionalism on part of the BCB murmured by senior cricketers in the recent past, a key issue arises -- if the condition of the premier sporting body in the country is so dire and demonstrative of a deeply embarrassing organizational culture, should we even begin to imagine the levels of mismanagement across other, much smaller, and potentially more corrupt federations and associations?
Effective, efficient, and goal-based sports management has been absent in Bangladesh due to the individualization of national sporting bodies by individuals like Kazi Salahuddin and Nazmul Hasan Papon -- undemocratic and deeply partisan leadership structures across these institutions have been barriers towards sports development, and such has been manifested via the criticisms directed towards football and cricketing organizers in particular.
Because at the end of the day, if those responsible for the development of sports are themselves not institutionally and structurally organized and accountable, then the long-term sporting aspirations of Bangladesh will remain unfulfilled.
What to do: A policy focus towards sports development
The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the “growing contribution of sport to the realization of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect and the contributions it makes to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals, and communities as well as to health, education, and social inclusion objectives.”
Each of the 17 UNSDGs incorporates recommendations regarding the role that sport can play in driving forward multilateral developmental agendas -- the benefits of which are deeply tangible and long-term in nature.
Therefore, both the scale of investments as well as how funds are divested with respect to sports development, is key.
Thirty percent of the total population in Bangladesh are defined as young (10 to 24 age group) -- human capital theoretically is therefore the nation's most indispensable forte, and investing in the youth through the lens of sports is surely a viable path towards sustainable development and youth welfare.
But perhaps more importantly -- it is an equally important medium to promote, protect and preserve a healthy and fit lifestyle for Bangladeshis.
From a national investment perspective, budgetary allocations towards the Ministry of Youth and Sports have been accompanied by a strategy to devote a high percentage of funds towards the operational costs of sports management, rather than sports development itself.
In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal provided an allocation of approximately Tk1,122 crore to the Ministry of Youth and Sports -- Tk356 crore less than the previous year. As per existing institutional rules, funds are allocated towards sporting federations and bodies through the National Sports Council.
Generally speaking, less than 20% of budgetary allocations have been directed towards sports development programs in the past decade or so -- which remains a cause of concern.
Therefore, while one expects a larger share of funds to be dedicated towards the sporting sector in the future with an ever-increasing budget size, there is a simultaneous need to assign a higher percentage of allocated funds towards development work -- which includes enhancing training centres across the country, investing in education programs for coaches, developing a wide range of high performance centres and fitness programs, maintaining existing facilities, and very importantly, promoting a diverse range of sports and athletics via government programs.
As it stands today, a high chunk of government funds goes towards cricket and football -- leaving little to no room for growth for other sports.
However, at the core of enhancing a positive sporting culture remains an immediate need for policymakers and stakeholders to take an active stand in re-imagining the archaic and nepotistic systems of governance with respect to domestic sporting clubs and national federations -- clamping down on corrupt practices and financial crimes is an equally important measure that needs to be taken.
The structural weaknesses of organizational bodies is a hurdle which Bangladesh faces when it comes to cultivating a progressive sporting culture -- and one where semi-professionals and professionals feel comfortable and confident in building a career in sports. Broader questions of management systems, age-level tiering, domestic competitions, and funding can be addressed if the state puts its focus on revamping institutions which run sports in the country -- and depoliticization of these institutions, and a simultaneous integration of professional management systems, is therefore a demand of time.
Protecting and promoting recreational spaces via a bottom-up approach also needs precedence -- especially in the context of children in Bangladesh being deprived of their right to play and be active in open spaces in their communities.
Bangladesh cannot expect to be a successful country in the international sporting arena, if children are denied the necessary platforms to be interested in sports. A policy focus towards this particular issue is therefore imperative.
And lastly, and importantly, encouraging women and members of marginalized populations to participate in sports development programs with the appropriate financial and organizational incentives, will go a long way in building a socio-economically stronger foundation for the growth of professionals -- pipeline management as one calls it, needs to take centre stage where different sporting bodies prioritize talent acquisition and management systems, to act as better organizers of sports in Bangladesh.
Dhaka TribuneLooking forward: More policy, less politics
By reading this very article, one could understand how important cricket and football is in Bangladesh. However, diversification in sports is needed -- but such cannot happen unless existing organizational structures in sports are reformed, under efficient policy oversight from the government and regulators.
Icons like Shakib Al Hasan and Niaz Murshed have been ambassadors of their nation in the international sporting arena -- and Bangladesh celebrates their achievements with pride. But if this young country wants to develop a comprehensive approach towards enhancing a positive sporting culture and be successful globally, the state needs to put time and effort into paying due diligence to people who play sports, and simultaneously, to those who run it.
It is time to reflect, re-imagine and react to the needs of 21st century sporting professionals -- and valuing and recognizing sports as a medium of positive change and a distinctive developmental multiplier, will undeniably act as a catalyst to make Bangladesh more competitive in the international sporting arena in the years to come.
Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed is a Toronto-based Banking Professional and a Regular Columnist for Bangladeshi Media Outlets. He can be reached at [email protected].
