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Rezaul hopes to be champs in Asian Games qualifiers


Published : 05 May 2022 09:03 PM

Bangladesh national hockey team left Dhaka for Bangkok on Wednesday, just after the Eid Day (Eid-ul-Ftr, Tuesday) at 11pm with high hope in the Asian Games Qualifying round to take place in Bangkok, Thailand from May 6-15.

The Bangkok bound 18-man Bangladesh team led by Reazul Karim will also play the Asian Cup Hockey tournament to take place in Jakarta from May 23 to June 2 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Bangladesh first will play will play the Asian Games qualifiers in Bangkok from May 6 to 15, then they will leave Thailand for Indonesia to take part in the Asia Cup

Team’s head coach Gobinathan Krishnamurti, who is on leave will join the team from Malaysia when the flight will have a transit in Kuala Lumpur on the team's way to Bangkok.   

Bangladesh will begin their campaign in the Asian Games qualifiers tomorro with taking on Singapore.

Bangladesh team was in a 20 days’ camp at the Bangladesh Kria Shikkha Pratisthan (BKS), as a part of their preparation for the upcoming tournaments, as the general secretary Mohammed informed the Bangladesh Post.

In the Asian Games Bangladesh team are in the Group B along with Sri Lanka, Singapore and the hosts Indonesia when in the Asia Cup they will have tough teams in their group, like, Malaysia, South Korea and Oman are in their group.     

Meanwhile, Rezaul Karim, captain of the national team while talking to the Bangladesh Post right before five hours of their departure on Wednesday, said, “We have to fly for Bangkok from our camp, as we had to perform our Eid Zamat from the camp. We had no scope to enjoy the festival with our family, so it’s a little bit unhappy for us but we are not fully disappointed. It’s a duty towards our country, commitment for the nation. Actually, we are experienced with the situations, as we had to play even on the Eid day previous. This time also we had a practice session on Eid day. 

Reazaul also expressed their targets with the tournaments, when he said, “We want to qualify in the Asian Games as a champions in the qualifying competition. But it would be something tough competition for us in the Asia Cup where we will have to face the world class teams like Malaysia, South Korea and Malaysia.”

“I can tell you, we will try our level best, we have experiences playing and defeating the opponents of the Asian Games Qualifiers in different tournaments in previous. But the teams in the Asia Cup far off our reach,” said Rezaul Haque.