More than a dozen female kabaddi players are set to miss the upcoming international women’s kabaddi tournament in Dhaka as their team, Bangladesh Ansar, is unlikely to participate in the competition.
The Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation will host the tournament from August 25-29 with teams from Nepal, India’s West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation already confirmed as participants.
Nazrul Islam, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation, said that he had personally visited Ansar headquarters to invite them to the competition but did not receive a positive response.
Ansar recently decided to withdraw its women’s kabaddi team after an awkward incident during the Bangladesh Games final, when some Ansar men attacked umpires in the wake of their loss to BJMC.
The federation fined Ansar Tk 100,000, and banned
four officials for two years and one player for a year.
After the incident, Ansar director general Major General Nazimuddin decided to withdraw the women’s kabaddi team, much to the frustration of the players who are still employed by the force.
Ansar players now wait idly at the Bangladesh Ansar Academy in Shafipur, with their future uncertain.
`As a player, it is very frustrating not to play in the tournament, but we have nothing to do,’ captain Shahnaz Pervin Maleka said on Tuesday.
National team players Shahnaz, Ismat Ara Nishi, Rupali Akter, Kochi Rani Mondol, Fatema Akter Koli and Doli Shefali are all Ansar employees who will miss the international tournament if the team maintains its position.
`We all are happy with our jobs here and the Bangladesh Ansar is providing us financial stability, but we also need competitive action,’ Shahnaz said.
-With New Age input
