Men hoping to turn the tide
The national men's kabaddi team returned from the last two editions of the Asian Games with wooden spoons after poor displays but this time around they are looking forward to turning the tide by at least regaining the bronze medal which they won in 2006.
Kabaddi had once been a medal-producing discipline for Bangladesh as the hosts bagged three silver and two bronze between 1990 and 2006, but with the emergence of new powerhouses like Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand, India and Iran, the men's event has held no guarantees.
The frustrating results over the past two editions is also evidence of how Bangladesh's standards at the international level have deteriorated, although the women's team spared some blushes by winning bronze in the five-team competition, where both semifinalists are awarded.
However, this time around the women's team are hesitant to set a target ahead of their scheduled departure for Jakarta on August 17.
Both the men and women's teams have been preparing for approximately nine months in a bid to better their performance in Jakarta, but they also have to deal with the handicap of not getting any practice matches. So any judgement on their improvement will have to be reserved for the courts of the Asian Games.
The 12-member men's squad has included five players who were a part of the previous edition while the women's team has three new faces in their 12-member squad.
"We have prepared well since December 2017 with the boys giving their utmost attention in training, but we don't know our weaknesses as we did not have any practice matches," men's coach Subimol Chandra Das said. "However, I am confident that the boys will put up better performances than they did in the previous edition because our defence is better than our offense."
Defender Tuhin Tarafder echoed his coach's sentiments.
"We have five players who have the experience of playing in the Professional Kabaddi League in India and there are two players who played in Pakistan's league. So, we have a mature side that can fight at this level," said Tuhin, who is taking inspiration from the performances at the World Cup, where Bangladesh played brilliantly but had to be content with a fifth-place finish. Bangladesh missed the semifinals after a narrow loss to South Korea and had also played brilliantly against eventual champions India before going down.
Captain Masud Karim is also confident that they will perform better than previously as they have improved a lot over the past nine months.
"To ensure silver or gold, we have to beat India or Iran. We don't have that strength to beat them but we have ability to beat either Pakistan or South Korea to regain the bronze medal," said the defender, who also believes the team's main strength is their defence.
However, Bangladesh women's team coach Abdul Jalil was hesitant to predict anything following the lack of competitive matches.
"The girls have not been in action at either domestic or international competitions since 2016 but we have had good preparation. Last time [in 2014] we won bronze by beating South Korea, who became runners-up in the last Asia Cup. I hope that the girls will play well but I can't say that we will retain the bronze medal," Jalil said over the phone.
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