'Kabaddi needs a complete overhaul'

Bangladesh’s kabaddi, especially the women’s game, needs a complete overhauling, opined Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation’s (BKF's) joint secretary Gazi Mozammel Haque after the country failed to secure a medal in the national sport for the first time in Asian Games’ 28-year history.

With the women's team already eliminated from the competition following three defeats in three matches, it was up to the men to salvage some pride. But the men's team also said goodbye to their medal hopes today after being beaten by 38-18 points by last edition’s bronze medallists South Korea.

The men's team had last won a medal in the Asian Games in Doha in 2006. The women's team had won a bronze medal in the last Asian Games.

“I'm not disappointed. The reality is the men are on th right track. They have played to their potential, but we will have to improve in a lot or areas,” Mozammel said after the men's defeat against South Korea. “We will hire two technical directors for men and women and a phsysiotherapist. Our target is to do well in next year's South Asian Games and regain a medal in the next Asian Games,” Mozammel added.

Bangladesh had begun their campaign with defeat against India, but bounced back with wins against Thailand and Sri Lanka. A win against the Koreans would have put them in second position in the group, thereby in contention for a medal.

The women's team, on the other hand, lost all three of their matches for an early elimination. They had won bronze medals in the last two edition after the women's game was added to the games roster in 2010. The BKF official said women's kabaddi needs a complete restructuring.

“Some of our players have grown old. We will have to recruit new players. We have some players from the Bangladesh Youth Games while we will be running school kabaddi soon to find a pool of at least 30 players,” Mozammel said.

Elsewhere, the men's three-on-three basketball team lost both their matches on the opening day by small margins. They lost by 10-7 points against Kyrgyzstan in the first match before losing against Mongolia by 17-14 points.

However, there was good news in hockey as Bangladesh thrashed Kazakhstan 6-1 in the morning. They scored three field goals and three from penalty corner. Khorshedur Rahman scored two goals while Moinul Islam Koushik, Mamunur Rahman Chayan, Rasel Mahmud Jimmy and Fazle Rabbi scored one apiece.

However, they seemed to have taken the opposition too lightly as they missed a few excellent scoring chances from open play while converting only three out of 11 penalty corners they earned.

Meanwhile, archer Ruman Sana, who finished third in the ranking round of men's individual ranking round on Tuesday, will play his Round of 16 match on Thursday morning.

Sana scored 677 points, with the South Korean top qualifier scoring 683 points.