1 week Ago
Converting penalty corners will be Bangladesh hockey team's "main strength" during their title defense in the upcoming Men's AHF Cup in Indonesia, said new captain Pushkor Khisa Mimo. Bangladesh have struggled to convert from penalty corners in past, with hardly any penalty corner specialists in the squad. But the 26-member Bangladesh contingent that will leave for Jakarta in the early hours of Tuesday to take part in the 10-team competition, from which the top two teams will qualify for next Asia Cup, has as many as four penalty corner specialists, a prospect that excited Mimo.
"We have participated in the last four editions of the AHF Cup and have become champions every time. We are going there to defend the title but it is going to be challenging because only two teams instead of four will qualify for the Asia Cup," Mimo told The Daily Star on Sunday. "I think converting penalty corners is going to be our main strength this time because we have drag-and-flick specialists like [Sohanur Rahman] Sabuj, Hujaifa [Hossain], Ashraful [Islam] and Amirul [Islam]," said the 31-year-old forward who is going to captain Bangladesh for the first time since co-captaining the side during the 2017 Asia Cup in Bangladesh.
Under coach Mamun Ur Rashid, the team had a six-week-long preparation camp ahead of the tournament but did not play any practice matches against international sides. Heading into a tournament without playing practice matches is nothing new for the team. Expectations were that the newly-formed ad-hoc committee would break away from this practice and arrange practice matches before the tournament but much like the previous committees, it failed to do so.
"We are happy with the preparation, with the way the boys practiced. They were out of action for a long time, they improved their fitness by 80 to 90 percent. The only lacking is that we couldn't evaluate the team's capacity due to not playing any practice matches," Bangladesh Hockey Federation joint secretary and team's assistant manager Abu Jafar Tapan said.
"We had a plan to play three practices matches in Malaysia before heading to Indonesia but we could not arrange it despite going door to door for funds." Fixtures April 18 – Bangladesh vs Kazakhstan April 20 – Bangladesh vs Indonesia April 22 – Bangladesh vs Thailand April 23 – Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka April 25 – Semifinals April 27 – Final Converting penalty corners will be Bangladesh hockey team's "main strength" during their title defense in the upcoming Men's AHF Cup in Indonesia, said new captain Pushkor Khisa Mimo. Bangladesh have struggled to convert from penalty corners in past, with hardly any penalty corner specialists in the squad.
But the 26-member Bangladesh contingent that will leave for Jakarta in the early hours of Tuesday to take part in the 10-team competition, from which the top two teams will qualify for next Asia Cup, has as many as four penalty corner specialists, a prospect that excited Mimo. "We have participated in the last four editions of the AHF Cup and have become champions every time. We are going there to defend the title but it is going to be challenging because only two teams instead of four will qualify for the Asia Cup," Mimo told The Daily Star on Sunday.
"I think converting penalty corners is going to be our main strength this time because we have drag-and-flick specialists like [Sohanur Rahman] Sabuj, Hujaifa [Hossain], Ashraful [Islam] and Amirul [Islam]," said the 31-year-old forward who is going to captain Bangladesh for the first time since co-captaining the side during the 2017 Asia Cup in Bangladesh. Under coach Mamun Ur Rashid, the team had a six-week-long preparation camp ahead of the tournament but did not play any practice matches against international sides. Heading into a tournament without playing practice matches is nothing new for the team.
Expectations were that the newly-formed ad-hoc committee would break away from this practice and arrange practice matches before the tournament but much like the previous committees, it failed to do so. "We are happy with the preparation, with the way the boys practiced. They were out of action for a long time, they improved their fitness by 80 to 90 percent.
The only lacking is that we couldn't evaluate the team's capacity due to not playing any practice matches," Bangladesh Hockey Federation joint secretary and team's assistant manager Abu Jafar Tapan said. "We had a plan to play three practices matches in Malaysia before heading to Indonesia but we could not arrange it despite going door to door for funds." Fixtures April 18 – Bangladesh vs Kazakhstan April 20 – Bangladesh vs Indonesia April 22 – Bangladesh vs Thailand April 23 – Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka April 25 – Semifinals April 27 – Final.
