The women national basketball team of Bangladesh started its journey in 2009. In spite of being a new team, the beginning of the journey was quite impressive.
In that year, the women basketball team was on its way to achieving its goal under the supervision of coach Iqbal Hossain, a former member of Bangladesh Navy.
During his tenure, the women's team played two matches with the South Asian teams in West Bengal, and Tripura and won both matches.
Ashreen Mridha, a former player of the national basketball team, who participated in seven international matches from 2009 to 2018, said with grief that this transition period for the basketball team didn’t last long as Mr Iqbal Hossain left his job as a coach in 2011.
“Besides Iqbal Hossain, we had amazing coaches like Bulbul sir, Sayed Sir, and others. But none of them coached permanently, and we became hopeless again," Ashreen said.
While talking with the writer, Ashreen shared a few memories from the 2019 camping period. It was a time when Ashreen and the other members faced a lot of hardships.
"It was a battle we had to fight both on the court and mentally as well."
There were a lot of issues going on during the practice sessions. However, none of the previous players was selected for the team for the SA games, and a completely new team was formed.
"Honestly, I was happy since all the players were much taller than us and very athletic," says Ashreen.
Unfortunately, the new team couldn’t perform as expected. As it is shown in the table below, Bangladesh lost against Bhutan by a score of 78:19 in Nepal.
Regarding the team selection, Gulnahar Mahbub Monika, a former player of the national team regretted, “Now we don't even know how the national team players are being selected nor the qualification of the coach."
“There are obviously funds for the women's section, but the national players do not get the proper treatment and the salary they deserve. We don't see the dedication or interest from the decision-makers to grow this sport.”
The only indoor basketball court in Abahani has not been renovated for the last 15 years. As a result, several players got injured while playing on that broken court, and none of the players has received any medical or financial aid so far.
Even Ashreen faced such situations more than two times when she sprained her ankles, but it wasn’t looked after by the authority.
Again, quoting Gulnahar Mahbub Monika, “The first national women's team was founded in 2009 and now it is 2022. If you look into the history, you will see how the graph has gone down.”
“I feel we need a change in the decision-making positions, they had a lot of opportunities throughout the years, but they could not show us any improvement or results. So it's high time we gave new people the opportunity to at least try," Gulnahar recommended.
In order to overcome the current scenario, according to Gulnahar, firstly, we need to start organising basketball training camps for girls so that they can learn how to play basketball and develop their skills.
Secondly, we need to regularly arrange tournaments within Bangladesh so that girls can showcase their talent and can grow confidence. Without regular tournaments, it is impossible to have growth in the game.
The third and the most important step we need to take is to create a proper structure for the national team selection, it must be transparent and should give the opportunity to every girl to at least try for the team.
Wasif Ali, a former player and captain of the BD National Basketball Team, who has been coaching the basketball men's team since 2002, regretfully mentions the financial lackings.
“We do want to give our players the best coach, but we’re not getting any financial backup.”
For the last tournament, they brought a coach from France, which cost them a fortune. We need to bring coaches from abroad to provide the players with world-class training.
“Unfortunately, we’re not getting sufficient funds,” sighed Mr Wasif.
He also sorrowfully expressed that they might lose the Abahani Basketball Court since this place has been issued for another project.
They also sent out letters to the Sports Ministry requesting a basketball court in some other place but didn't get any response.
When asked about basketball leagues and tournaments, he sadly shared that “We’re not getting enough sponsors for our tournaments. After CityCell, we’re struggling to find sponsors for tournaments.”
However, he is hopeful about the basketball teams. He says, “Gradually, the basketball teams will get much stronger if sufficient tournaments and training sessions are provided.”
Mr Wasif Ali himself is an amazing basketball player, for which he was nominated for a national award for Basketball in 2017. Besides the BD National Basketball team, he had coached Dhaka University Basketball Team, as well as teams from Army and Navy.
Nevertheless, the passionate players didn’t lose hope. They are highly committed to their sports and have kept playing basketball on private levels ever since.
By 2021 with the initiative from Bangladesh Olympiad, district-level basketball tournaments are being arranged.
If such tournaments and leagues were organised more frequently, and the continuity was maintained, surely, the Basketball Women’s team could bring glory to our nation.
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