Bangladesh took part in two major Games-- 16th Commonwealth and 13th Asian-- in 1998. Besides, there were two other notable trips-one to the 33rd Chess Olympiad in Elista. Russia, while the other was the Asian Track and Field meet in Fukoda, Japan.

Other than the national chess team, who occupied the 52nd position among the 110 participating nations, the other three trips brought nothing but disgrace for the nation. There was also a personal achievement for young chess knot Abdullah Al-Rakib, who earned his International Master's title from that Chess Olympiad.

In Japan last summer, the Bangladesh athletics team was more busy in doing what they were not sent for. Instead of motivating the athletes, winning a medal would have been the eighth wonder of the world, a couple of high officials of the team, the General Secretary and

the Treasurer of the Athletics Federation, allegedly abused sexually the lone female athlete in the contingent. Lovely Begum. a sprinter, submitted a written complain to the National Sports Council (NSC) on her return from Fukoda, allegedly at the behest of some rival Federation officials.

The NSC and Bangladesh Amateur Athletics Federation (BAAF) formed two separate committees to investigate the matter. The BAAF committee found the accused not guilty but proposed measures to censure the officials on the dock. But the NSC, after receiving the report of its own committee, issued a letter asking the BAAF to show cause as to why it should not be dissolved.

Then came the third committee. To the surprise of many, the Zainal Hazari-led three-man parliamentary committee took over the matter several months before but nothing has come out of it till filing of this report.

As with most other matters of inquiry, it now seems that almost everyone concerned has shelved the matter and the allegations and denials have died a natural death. Who cares?

The first of the two major trips, arranged by the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA), was the 16th Commonwealth Games, which was held in Kuala Lumpur last September.

Although Bangladesh sent athletes in as many as four disciplines. the whole nation pinned Its only hopes on the shooting team.

Shooting is the event in which Bangladesh won their first ever gold in the international sports arena a decade back. But the performance of our shooters this time was more than awful. Discipline of the shooting team broke down completely. Many irregularities also took place while selecting the team. Moreover, a few shooters also got involved in alleged sex scandals. The shooting team manager was busy sending news dispatches to a Dhaka Bengali daily. Sadly, NSC and BOA have remained silent and have surprisingly refrained from trouble shooting.

In cricket, which was incorporated in the Commonwealth Games for the first time, Bangladesh could have • only beaten Ireland in the group matches. But did they?

Finally, the year closed with our dismal performance in the 13th Asian Games, which was held in Bangkok last month with Bangladesh taking part in eight disciplines.

For the first time, to the utter shock of sports fans, two disciplines — golf and snooker, in which Bangladesh finished

with shameful results--were sold to the private sector and a few affluent persons purchased the national blazer at their own cost, in golf we were last among 14 nations. In snooker, we also had to look down a deep hole.

In hockey, the Bangladeshi boys once again proved that they have a long way to go when they conceded 14 goals to South Korea. That was Bangladesh’s second worst performance In its hockey history. They eventually finished with the ninth position ahead of hosts Thailand having consumed a total of 26 goals against one in the four first-round matches.

Kabadi was the only event in which Bangladesh had earned a silver in the Hiroshima Asiad in 1994. But this time they finished with a bronze behind Pakistan, who used to take technical tips from Bangladesh even a few years back. That only proves that while other nations try to improve their performance to earn pride for their country, we degrade ourselves with out any qualms. Thanks to the Almighty that we could manage a draw with Sri Lanka (!), otherwise we would not have even won the bronze in our crore Taka expedition.

In the remaining four events, Bangladesh had nothing to do other than appearing in the qualifying rounds and get ousted. Gaining experience was the excuse given by all the disciplines.

There is nothing more to write about all the chronicles of failures because that is the clear reflection of our poor and nonprofessional sports infrastructure that has been prevailing even 27 years after our independence.

The National Sports Council abolished the ad-hoc committee of the Bangladesh Olympic As-sociation(BOA) in the last week of December for the dismal performance in Bangkok. Many consider the NSC move a show of power. For NSC is equally responsible for the national debacle.

BOA can not improve the standard of sports unless the NSC or the Ministry remain vigilant over the activities of ,.the federations, which rule over each sport with a handsome annual grant from the NSC.

The NSC have provided crores of Taka to these federations for the training of the athletes. So, it should be the federations, who should be held responsible for the poor performances and not only the BOA.

Everybody understands this simple equation. But nobody in our sports arena seems seriously interested in raising this point. And that’s the major reason why we do not develop in any sector. Long live Bangladesh sport.