Bangladesh Squash Rackets Federation (BSRF) is optimistic about the expansion of the game as it wants to organise matches regularly.
General Secretary of Squash Federation Brigadier General Quamrul Islam said in a workshop organised by the Bangladesh Sports Press Association (BSPA) at Dhaka Club Limited on Sunday.
It has been almost 17 years BSRF could not arrange any tournament so far. National Sports Council (NSC) provides TK 10 lakh to the federations as yearly donation. BSRF received TK 1 crore 70 lakh in last 17 years. However, it could not organize the domestic tournament or earn any success at home and international level in squash over 50 years.
The General Secretary said, “There are squash courts in 17 districts. But no match or tournament was organised in any of the courts. These courts left abandoned. So, the federation can’t produce new player.”
The BSRF general secretary also expressed his disappointment that they have no permanent office for the federation. Meanwhile, NSC allocated them 17 decimal of lands at Banai in 2020 but it has already been four years gone the federation could not utilize the land for their office, as local musclemen occupied the lands.
Federation hopes that they will recover the land within a year and the office will run by 2026.
There are 450 squash players across the country. They play squash by their own interests. Most of them are Dhaka based, who play at IUB, Uttara, Dhaka Club and Gulshan Club squash courts.
Meanwhile, Manager of BSRF Abdul Hai said, “A total of 200 boys and girls playing squash in 25 schools and colleges in the country. We can’t give them any facilities, produce players for future.”
“It needs more training to become a squash player. There is a modern training centre in Gopalganj. BSRF sent the players to Gopalganj for training. But it is enough to train lot of players,” Hai added.
There are also huge scarcity of trainers when BSRF has only five trainers. They need more trainer and coaches to have quality of players.
BSRF initiated an Education Scholarship, which they started last year under a pilot programme ‘BSRF Flagship Classroom Squash Programme’, when provide fund to underprivileged girls for sports equipment, food and education assistance.
