Favourites Bangladesh will kick-off their FIH Hockey World League round-1 campaign against Sri Lanka at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium at 3:30pm today.
Apart from the Lankans, Bangladesh, who finished as the champions in the last edition of Hockey World League round-1, will face Hong Kong on Sunday in their last match as the fourth team of the group, Afghanistan, withdrew from the event.
Bangladesh coach Naveed Alam believes this tournament will serve as a great preparation for the national side’s Asian Games participation later this month, but at the same time cautioned his players not to take the opponents lightly. During the Asian Games qualifying in March, Sri Lanka held Bangladesh to 2-2, before the latter won 3-0 in penalties.
“We are taking this tournament as a part of Asian Games preparation and this tournament will give me clear concept about the team and we will find out the improvements in the last three months,” said Naveed yesterday.
“There is no space to underestimate any opponents in the international tournament. We will play for the championship and will try to boost our confidence before the Asian Games.” he added.
Despite losing three matches against a strong India side last month, Naveed thinks the series was a great “learning opportunity” while he also expressed happiness over his charges who “tried to improve their low fault.”
“I think they will show their improvement in the Hockey World League,” Naveed said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh captain Mamunur Rahman Chayan echoed the same sentiment as of his coach’s and said, “We will take them (Sri Lanka) very seriously and will try to play according to our plan. If we stick to our own plan then we will win both the matches with big margins.”
After arriving yesterday, Sri Lanka enjoyed their warm-up at the match venue in the evening. This will be the island nation’s first appearance in the Hockey World League while they have also qualified for the Asian Games.
“If you look at the ranking both Bangladesh and Hong Kong are ahead of us but we are improving and also want to qualify for the next round,” said Sri Lanka’s newly appointed coach Nadeem Ahmed Bhaat yesterday.
The number of teams to progress to the next round is not finalised yet as the FIH will only confirm the issue after the end of round-1 which will be played in nine different venues across the world. The round-2 is scheduled to be held in Singapore in January next year.
The Bangladesh Hockey Federation also introduced three sponsors of the tournament — Sonali Bank Limited, Janata Bank Limited and Argani Bank Limited — who will combine to provide Tk3.5m to the BHF while TV channel ATN Bangla will telecast the games live.
