Sports Special

A broken leg, a football academy and a dream

When Sathi Munda stepped up to take Bangladesh’s fifth and final penalty in the shootout against India on March 10, 2024, the fate of the SAFF Under-16 Women’s Championship title was hanging in the balance.

6d ago

From wheelchair to Paralympics: Jhuma’s inspiring journey

“So what if I’m a person with disabilities?” said Jhuma Akhter, with sparks of defiance and confidence in her eyes, to anyone who ever doubted her.

Balancing the sporting scales: Still miles to go

The sporting world in the past decade has witnessed a paradigm shift when it comes to the women’s circuit. In between came the coronavirus pandemic but the uprising proceeded nonetheless.

‘If nothing changes, athletics will fall apart’

Milzar Hossain, one of the most prominent athletes of the country in the 80s, holds the record for the best ever timing by a Bangladeshi in the 800m event, 1:51.16, which he clocked in the 1986 Asian Games to finish fifth. The 58-year-old SA Games silver medalist spoke with The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman about the current state of athletics in Bangladesh and what needs to be done to improve it.

Running towards extinction!

Not that long ago, there used to be a dogfight among a number of teams for medals in the national and summer athletics championships.

In India, when you grow up, you work really hard for everything: Jaiswal

"In India, when you grow up, you work really hard for each and everything. Even when getting the bus you have to work really hard to get on the bus," said Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Commando’s shot into athletics record

A former member of the force which provides security for the Prime Minister and the President, Sarwar had a couple of pauses in his athletic pursuits. But he keeps coming back to track and field, which helped him clear 14.89 metres in the shot put event and eclipse the previous record set by Mohammad Ibrahim in 2019 by 0.36 metres.

Sports, politics and the ugly by-product

Ideally, sports and politics should never mix, but inevitably, sports and politics always mix.

A referee’s refusal to lose hope

In 1998, SM Kamrul Islam Babu, a native of Dhulgram village in Abhaynagar upazila, Jashore, badly injured both of his hands while working with a shallow machine at a fish enclosure.

‘Local coaches shun the overseas-trained players’

Abdur Razzak, a local coach who holds an AFC A level certification, was involved with the selection process in all three talent hunt programmes and accompanied the four promising players in Brazil as coach. The 55-year-old, who has been in the coaching profession for 23 years, spoke with The Daily Star’s Anisur Rahman about what happens in such overseas training programmes and why have the budding footballers not been able to make it big after returning home.

Talent sought, found and forgotten

In July of 2020, at a time when Bangladesh like the rest of the world was battling the coronavirus, an image of a young man wielding a broom started making rounds in the country’s social media.

Comilla unwilling to stay in next BPL without revenue sharing

Bangladesh Premier League’s (BPL) planning and professionalism have often come under scrutiny due to the lack of structure. Comilla Victorians are the most-successful franchise in BPL history and organise themselves better than most in building a star-studded BPL team. Their success is reflected in the way the franchise run their business model but the franchise also has problems with the financial model the BPL is run with. Comilla Victorians owner Nafisa Kamal discussed whether BPL has been a profitable venture, the problems with the tournament’s branding, Comilla Victorians’ brand value, wishing for women’s franchise cricket and most importantly the fact that the owner feels the franchise may not continue in next BPL due to the absence of revenue-sharing model.

‘Plucking U19 players directly for national team not ideal’

The Asian Champions Bangladesh Under-19 team will soon fly to South Africa in pursuit of their second ICC Under-19 World Cup, which begins on January 19. The Daily Star’s Mazhar Uddin caught up with Bangladesh Cricket Board’s game development committee chairman Khaled Mahmud Sujon where he spoke about his expectations from the upcoming event and about preparing future stars in an exclusive interview.

Bangladesh’s U-19 obsession and its consequence

Which of these two countries are more successful in age-level cricket, India or Bangladesh?

'Women deserve same respect as men in sports'

Bangladesh scaled to many new heights in women's cricket in 2023 and the person who led them in this ascend from the front was captain Nigar Sultana Jyoti. As a new year begins with new possibilities and challenges, The Daily Star's Ekush Tapadar spoke with Jyoti, where she spoke about the remarkable 2023 and what she hopes to achieve in 2024.