Few highlights beside cricket

Compare the years 2014 and 2015 and one will find a series of contradictions. 2014 with all its 'cricketing' expectations and opportunities, considering that we hosted the World Cup, had turned out to be a year of football.

2015 though witnessed cricketers stealing every possible positive headline available. It wouldn't be harsh to state that aside from cricket there was little Bangladesh's sports arena could cheer about.

And the highlight of that disappointment came towards the end of the year during the most prestigious South Asian football tournament, the SAFF Cup.

The way Bangladesh were absolutely swept aside by Afghanistan and Maldives not only led to an early exit but also raised questions regarding Bangladesh's football standard.

The result was so disappointing that it compelled Bangladesh Football Federation's president Mohammad Salahuddin to issue an apology to the country.

On the whole, football, unlike 2014, ended this year on a worrisome note.

Hockey witnessed a similarly distressing tale. While it did see its first domestic competition after 22 months in December this year, the Victory Day Cup, the sport remains in turmoil.

There were moments this year when players boycotted the national team's training sessions since the federation wasn't able to organise the Dhaka Premier Division League, a competition through which the players earn a majority of their money. The dire straits had even compelled Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan Papon take a peek into the hockey affairs in a bid to help them out.

The scenario in the individual sporting arena wasn't too bright either. The likes of Abdullah Hel Baki and Siddikur Rahman who had impressed the year before, failed to create a similar impact.

Baki, who had won silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games failed to grab anything in international shooting tournaments this year while Siddikur who had good starts in a number of tournaments, just couldn't finish well in any of them.

While disappointments were aplenty, there were still reasons to be hopeful. The stories of the Bangladesh U-14 girls and the U-16 boys football team provided reasons to smile. The teams aced the SAFF championships this year.

In addition, Mabia Akter Simanta received gold in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship; and so did Tamimul Islam who topped the Recurve Bow event at the Youth Commonwealth Archery Championships.

2015 has already been dubbed as the year that witnessed the rise of Bangladesh's cricketers and there's no doubt that a majority of the sports enthusiasts would be happy with the way the year went by, since cricket after all is by far the most popular sport.

However, one would hope that the distressing scenes amongst sports outside cricket change next year and that they receive the support they deserve.