A group of boys, all under 15 years old, either hail from under-privileged families or belong to the lower-income sections of the society in Gopalganj, a district comprising a little over 1.1m inhabitants. They all study in Moulavi Abdul Hai Memorial School, Gopalganj and some of them never traveled outside their district, let alone making a sojourn in Dhaka, the capital city.
That they have already made trips to Spain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden might be a thing of wonder but it was only possible due to Bangla Club, a local sports body established in 2009.
Coincidentally, the president of Bangla Club, Ali Azam, also happens to be the person who founded the Moulavi Abdul Hai Memorial School in Gopalganj and the youngsters, all talented handball players, do not have to pay a single buck from their pockets for the purpose of studying or for traveling abroad to take part in youth handball tournaments. All are managed by Bangla Club and different other sponsors.
Like the Bangladesh handball team, the Bangla Club handball side also takes part in friendlies and different tournaments at home and abroad throughout a year. The only difference is that Bangla Club continuously strives to improve the young players and places more emphasis on youth. Thus, the national side’s future prospects are also enhanced in the process as more players are added to the pipeline.
The Bangla Club handball side is coached by Mobassher Salam Mukti and Abdullah Parvez Munna performs his duties as the manager.
The two most important tournaments the team plays in are the Premier League in Bangladesh and the Partille Cup in Sweden, the largest youth handball competition in the world.
The Partille Cup was held for the first time in 1970 and over the years saw its interest grow at the rate of knots. In the last year, in the tournament’s 45th consecutive edition, 1,120 teams from 44 nations took part with more than 20,000 participants. Every year, interest surrounding the Partille Cup flourishes rapidly and this time, more than 1,200 teams from 60 countries will enter the competition, an increase of 80 teams and 16 countries in a single year.
The Bangla Club handball side’s appearance in the Partille Cup last year saw them exiting in the quarterfinal stage, a laudable performance in itself. The side scored 120 goals and conceded 97 and were it not for the absence of one of their major players through injury before the quarterfinals, they could have easily progressed beyond the quarters.
The Bangla Club handball team left the country on June 12 for Spain where they will play a string of matches before heading to Sweden to take part in this year’s Partille Cup which is set to take place from June 30-July 5.
Following the handball side’s surge in performance and continued development, Bangla Club is now looking beyond handball.
“Besides handball, we are also trying to extend our boundaries. We want to be diversified that is why we desire to add cricket, football and volleyball to our programme. We also want to form a woman’s handball team next year,” Bangla Club owner Ali Azam told Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday.
“Like us, if more and more people come forward and take initiatives to improve our young boys in any field of sports, the future will only be bright,” said Azam.
