Asian Games: BOA ignores chess

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 26: (L-R) Qingshuang...

The exclusion of chess from the Asian Games-bound Bangladesh contingent has raised questions about the selection procedure of the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) as the performance of the chess team has so far been satisfactory in the last Asian Games in 2006.
Bangladesh finished joint fourth and eventually came in seventh through a tie-breaker in the men's team event of chess, one of 10 disciplines that Bangladesh took part in during Doha Asian Games in Qatar.
Bangladesh's lone achievement in the Doha Asiad was a bronze medal from kabaddi. Besides, the other notable performances, albeit without a medal was in weightlifting.
The BOA has chosen 14 disciplines -- football, cricket (men & women), hockey, kabaddi (men & women), shooting, swimming, athletics, boxing, archery, wushu, karate, weightlifting, taekwondo and golf and the intensive training of those disciplines will get underway on August 10.
They also dropped the women's kabaddi team citing fund shortage, but later included it in due to pressure from the federation, who insisted that the women's kabaddi team have a bright chance to win a medal in the absence of the Japan and Iran teams.
The BOA initially asked the chess federation to send names of one man and one woman chess player for the rapid chess event, but the federation wanted to send both men's and women's teams instead of just for rapid chess event, in which they have only a slim chance of doing well.
"Compared to the previous match, we have a strong chance to win a medal in the team event and logically we denied to send players in the individual event," said BCF general secretary Mokaddes Hossain adding that if Bangladesh could not do well in the team event, they had good chance to earn individual norms from the event.
"I have doubts on whether they understand the game of chess, because if they did they could not drop it," said Hossain.
But BOA vice-president and chairman of training committee Mizanur Rahman Manu was not backing down.
"All right, we may not understand chess, but they should have come forward to make us understand and I think there was a communication gap. Still chess has a chance to be included," said the BOA vice president adding that they just considered the performance of last South Asian Games when choosing the disciplines for the Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China in November.
Manu informed that BCF president and civil aviation and tourism minister GM Quader wrote a letter to BOA president and Army Chief Abdul Mubeen, who would will take a final decision once he returns from abroad.