Officials of different sports federations expressed their shock and anger as they were left hostage by the Bangladesh Cricket Board ahead of a musical concert at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today. Most of the federations had to shun their activities because of the concert where Oscar winning music composer AR Rahman and Senegalese-American R&B singer Akon will perform, among others.
Citing security reason, the organisers sealed the entire stadium and restricted the people’s movement, disrupting all other activities in the area.
The Bangladesh Football Federation was particularly upset with the BCB behaviour.
Top officials of Bangladesh Football Federation claimed that they had agreed earlier to hand over their main venue to BCB to organise the opening ceremony of the World T20 only to know that it was not an International Cricket Council sanctioned event.
‘The BCB and the [sports] ministry told us that they would organise the opening ceremony at the Bangabandhu National Stadium but now came to know that the ICC was not involved with the concert,’ said Badal Roy, vice-president of the BFF, on Wednesday.
‘The BCB decision to host a musical programme in our main venue is nothing but a ploy to destroy our football. They damaged the pitch and athletic turf badly by setting up many heavy equipment,’ added Badal, who is also deputy secretary general of the Bangladesh Olympic Association.
‘This programme is only for helping some powerful cricket organisers to
make some quick money, nothing else,’ said an angry Badol Roy.
‘We always responded positively when they [BCB] sought the stadium. We stopped our all programmes for about eight months before the 2011 ICC World Cup but when we asked for the Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium for organising a one-hour practice session for the Argentina national team, they ignored us,’ Badal Roy alleged.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Hockey Federation is facing deep troubles in taking preparations for the qualifying round of the Asian Games, which is scheduled to get underway from March 15 at the Maulana Bhasani National Stadium.
Due to strong security, the officials of the BHF failed to enter their federation office which made them annoyed.
‘Would we stop our all sports for cricket? After just two days we are going to organise the eight-nation Asian Games qualifying round but due to the concert we are facing many obstacles before the important tournament,’ said a disappointed Khaja Rahmatullah, general secretary of the BHF.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Handball Federation general secretary, Asaduzzaman Kohinoor, also president of the sports federations forum, said the security forces didn’t allow them enter the stadium area on Wednesday to run their normal programmes.
‘Our national team will play an international tournament abroad soon but due to the strong security none could take to the field today,’ said Kohinoor.
Federation officials blamed the current BCB board of directors led by its president Nazmul Hasan for breaking a long tradition by not showing usual courtesy to other federations while distributing the complimentary tickets.
It was learnt that the BCB had provided just one gallery ticket to each federation, which many officials took as an insult.
‘I don’t know when a federation official last time watched a programme like this from the gallery, this is nothing but an insult for us,’ said Bangladesh Volleyball Federation general secretary Ashikur Rahman.
-With New Age input
