The Bangladesh Hockey Federation are yet to appoint a foreign coach for the national team although they confirmed Janata Bank as a sponsor for the foreign coach two months ago.
Janata Bank will provide more than Tk 90 lakh in one year for the purpose of maintaining expenses of the foreign coach but the BHF have not yet assigned a foreign coach.
The governing body’s first choice was former Indian national team coach Ajay Kumar Bansal but he was forbidden from taking up the job by the Indian sports minister.
The BHF then named former Indian women’s national team coach Maharaj Kishan Kaushik as their second preference but Kaushik was alleged to be involved in a sexual harassment incident claimed by a national woman player, Ranjitha in 2010 and lost his job after he was found guilty subsequently.
General secretary of the BHF, Khaja Rahamatullah verified on Friday that they have backtracked on their decision of employing Kaushik due to his controversial personality and they have started their search of another foreign coach.
The BHF did not take enough information regarding Kaushik before suggesting his name as the new national team coach but when the media pointed out the sexual scandal of Kaushik then the BHF began their quest of gathering information about Kaushik.
‘We decided not to appoint [Maharaj Kishan] Kaushik and we are searching for an alternative option. We already contacted with a few Indian and Pakistani coaches who were also interested in working with us,’ said Rahamatullah.
Mamunur Rashid, member of the BHF, admitted that they are in touch with former Indian national team coach Harendra Singh and former Pakistan national team coach Naveed Alam.
‘We talked with Harendra [Singh] and Naveed [Alam] and they expressed their desire to work with us. We will discuss about those two coaches in our meeting tomorrow [Saturday],’ he said.
Before the meeting, Air Marshal Enamul Bari, president of the BHF will meet with the players today who continued their boycott from all hockey activities and the players are hopeful that after the meeting with the president all the uncertainty will come to an end.
-With New Age input
