‘No plans to lift restrictions on sporting activities’
|
We have already sought Tk 2 crore more allotment from the finance ministry. If we get approval, we will bring another 2000 athletes under the assistance programme. In this case, we may meet the demands of different federations in near future. Zahid Ahsan Russel |
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Despite easing restrictions on business and social activities amid the extended general vacation, the government is not yet planning to lift restrictions on the country's sporting activities.
"At the moment, there is no situation to participate in any competitions or tournaments as sporting activities are suspended. If players contract the virus during practice or training, it can be dangerous," Zahid Ahsan Russel, state minister for youth and sports, told The Daily Star on Thursday.
On March 16, the ministry released a circular instructing all national sports federations to suspend activities. Two months since that declaration, there is already disagreement among stakeholders over whether to resume.
Most Premier League clubs want the season ended without any more competition but footballers are opposed to that idea.
Meanwhile, the Cricket Welfare Association of Bangladesh have demanded the resumption of the Dhaka Premier League after Eid-ul-Fitr.
"There may be demand from the sports arena, but for the sake of the people the government does not have any plan to relax restrictions at the moment," Russel said. "Some businesses may remain open to keep the economy running but all schools, colleges, universities, government offices are closed. If we want to resume sports, how will athletes gather in the capital without transports facilities?"
Replying to a query, the sports minister said: "It is not possible to set a timeframe to restart sport because we can't predict the trend as sometimes it [rate of infection] rises and falls."
Russel also said that some federation officials communicated with him to ask to resume competitions, but he told them to provide concrete proposals.
"Football has proposed whether they can resume it in isolation [without spectators] after testing for Covid-19. I told cricket and football authorities to submit their plans as to how they want to organise their leagues. If they need to do it, they can do it step by step but they have to let us know about their steps and we will check out plans and think of whether to approve any proposals," said Russel.
Youth and sports secretary M Akhter Hossain said that they are for not thinking of resumption of sports activities anytime soon.
"No directive regarding sporting activities may come until the end of the general vacation [May 30]. No discussion regarding this has taken place," Hossain told The Daily Star on Thursday.