Anisur Rahman

Not too long ago volleyball was out of everyone’s sight due to its irregular domestic competitions and failure at international level, but change in leadership and international success has seemingly given Bangladesh’s volleyball a new boost in recent past.

National badminton champion Gourab Singha has climbed to the top of national rankings, but the limitation of training facilities, quality coaches and lack of competitions have confined him within a certain boundary of progress.

Shooting was one of the major goldmines for Bangladesh in the South Asian Games, but the country saw its shooters return home with only wooden spoons from the last edition of the SA Games in Nepal -- only the second times in Bangladesh’s shooting history that they ended the regional showpiece without a gold medal in the discipline.

Despite the return of sporting activities last September following a seven-month break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, swimming had not organised any events.

Internationally successful archer Ruman Sana’s failure in the Bangabandhu 9th Bangladesh Games is one of the talking points in sports arena, especially as he gets prepared for July’s Tokyo Olympics.

When Mozammel Haque was taken to Mugda Medical College Hospital in an ambulance, it was evident that the Covid-19 patient needed oxygen support.

With only two oxygen cylinders, the emergency unit of Mugda Medical College Hospital in the capital is struggling to cope with the influx of coronavirus patients.

5-year-old striker Suman Reza is likely to be head coach Jamie Day’s first-choice striker in the absence of Nabib Newaj Jibon during a tri-nation

26-year-old centreback Mehedi Hasan, who has not yet completed an entire Bangladesh Premier League campaign, was in wonderland after being named as a surprise inclusion for the national football team before the booters boarded a Nepal-bound flight to take part in a three-nation tournament involving the hosts and Kyrgyzstan’s U-23 team.

“Because of my laziness, I could not get into the national team in the past,” was the honest admission of Habibur Rahman Shohag, the Mohammedan player who recently been selected for the national squad for this month’s tri-nation tournament in Nepal.

Mehedi Hasan Royal is a student of the law department of Kushtia Islamic University but his passion since childhood has been football.

At the start of this season’s Bangladesh Premier League, there were fears about a poor show from the footballers following the long coronavirus-induced break and the nominal payment to players.

Although athletes from Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) have dominated the domestic circuit in most disciplines, only a handful have delivered expected performances at the international level.

The Toyota accelerated at top speed but fell short of the Ferrari in the final of the Walton Federation Cup final yesterday as Bashundhara Kings beat Saif Sporting Club 1-0 at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday to lift the season’s curtain-raising tournament.

Playing for one club for 18 years is without a doubt a sign of a player’s great loyalty, which is repaid by the club year after year by offering contracts despite the kind of service they will get.

The long-standing demand of footballers for a well-equipped gymnasium is likely to come true, but unfortunately at the expense of the green open lawn at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) premises.

After a seven-year hiatus, the third edition of women’s football league just drew to a close on Sunday with the star-studded Bashundhara Kings becoming the new, undisputed champions, thanks to national forwards Sabina Khatun, Krishna Rani Sarkar and Tahura Khatun in their roster to make the key difference with other teams.

A group of talented girls unexpectedly stormed onto headlines in 2015 and their success, including advancing to the 2017 finals of AFC U-16 Women’s Championship, and brilliant performances have continued silently as the Tricotex Women’s Football League has failed to attract spectators in the new normal.

When news of Diego Armando Maradona’s passing filtered through on the night of November 25 in Bangladesh, the grief that took hold in the country was as if a mischievous, magnetic boy next door died and not a footballing genius who lived 10,000 miles away and imbued everything he touched with the brightest colours.

The supporters of Mohammedan SC don’t flock to the Motijheel-based tent of the Black and Whites to watch their favourite footballers like they once used to during the glory days of football. But today, the Mohammedan supporters once again gathered at the club tent, obviously not to see a new football sensation rather bid goodbye to the great Badal Roy.