The Bangladesh Hockey Federation revealed its plans for a countrywide school hockey at the Falcon Hall of Bangladesh Air Force yesterday.
The First Security Islami Bank Ltd (FSIBL) agreed to sponsor the program in July with a purse of Tk20m and half the amount has already been given to the federation. The amount is to date the largest sponsorship deal the hockey federation has been involved, surpassing the Tk9m deal with Janata Bank Ltd for recruiting a national coach.
At the unveiling, the official logo of the First Security Islami Bank Ltd (FSIBL) National School Hockey was unveiled. The logo looks like the Bangladesh flag with hockey players moving forward. A theme song titled “Shoishab Durnoto, Hockeyte Ananda” sung by S. I. Tutul and three youngsters - Nabil, Nobel and Omi – was also released.
Khawja Rahmatullah, the general secretary of the hockey federation, set the goal of Bangladesh making it into the Hockey World Cup of 2022. “We have to set a target. In 2018, the number of teams in the World Cup will be 18 and four years later it will be 24. Currently we are ranked 31 so we believe if we take certain steps, we can reach the top level. The school hockey program is the starting point of realizing our dream,” he said.
The president of the hockey federation and the Air Force chief Air Marshal Enamul Bari was also excited about the development. “Earlier, the national school hockey was played with 25/30 districts but this time we will involve all 64 districts and at least one school from each district in the meet - a total of 1,600 players from 102 schools across the country are all set to play in the meet. We will be extending all possible support to the budding players and I believe it’s a new beginning for Bangladesh hockey” said Bari, adding that the president of International Hockey Federation Leandre Negre has accepted an invitation to be present at the inauguration ceremony of the meet.
Managing director of FSIBL, A.A.M. Zakaria hoped the tournament could help Bangladesh reach new highs in the sport. “We believe Bangladesh has the potential of reaching higher level in the international arena and national school hockey will set the platform to reach the expected height” said Zakaria.
Chairman of the tournament committee Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman also spoke on the occasion and said he would support the players in their higher education efforts.
