19 national hockey players resign

Nineteen members of the national hockey team tendered their resignation yesterday in protest against the discriminating behaviour by German coach Gerhard Peter Rach.

The surprise mass resignation was submitted immediately after the Victory Day match between the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) XI comprising national players and Bangladesh police.

The resignation one and a half months ahead of the South Asian Games served a body blow to the BHF, which actually arranged improved training for the resigned 19 players in different European clubs under Rach.

But the visibly aggrieved players called Rach a dictator. They also blamed the German for not taking care of them during their two-month tour of Europe in the resignation letter. The players also stated that they would not join the national team until Rach was removed from his post.

The resignation episode, however, took a decisive twist in the morning when Rach kept six players — Chandan, Kuti, Shuvo, Hasan, Rimon and Rajan — out of the BHF XI squad for the ongoing Victory Day hockey competition.

“I have been put in category A during the tour of Europe, but the coach has dropped me without giving any reason. I think he took it personally because we were vocal against him for his mismanagement during the tour of Europe,” said defender Asaduzzaman Chandan adding that he would never play for the national team if the coach could prove that he played bad in Europe.

Rach however defended his position saying that the squad picked for the Victory Day competition was not the final team for the SA Games. He also added that the changes have been made to only give other players an opportunity to prove their worth.

Rasel Mahmud Jimmy blamed that the coach had never seen a single game they played in Germany, Holland, Italy and Czech Republic.

“He never saw a single match we played during our tour, but he picked the squad after having seen a 20-minute game today and it is unacceptable,” said striker Jimmy, who was kept in category B along with Chayan, John and Kiron.

Pintu, a player of category A, said that the allegations brought by Jimmy and Chandan were logical as all the players suffered much during their tour of Europe.

Rach categorised 18 players who toured Europe into four groups — A, B, C and D. But now he revised it after having analysing video footages.

“Yes, Chandan was kept in category A, but his performance was not good while Jimmy is not improving as he plays in one place. Apart from them, Chayan, Biplob, Tapash, Mimu have improved a lot playing in Europe,” said Rach, who turned down the allegations brought against him, adding that two to three players were misguiding others.

When contracted BHF general secretary Khondoker Jamiluddin said that he was on his way to the federation after getting the news of mass resignation.

Anvir Adil, co-ordinator of the national team, said that the national camp would continue and they would investigate into the allegations