Aminul yearns to make playgrounds accessible, not build stadiums

Aminul Haque is well known as a star former footballer. He is considered one of the country’s finest goalkeepers in history.

Now 45, Aminul made his debut for a big team in Mohammedan Sporting Club at the young age of 15. In club football, besides Mohammedan, he played in the famous jerseys of Dhaka Abahani Limited, Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra, Brothers Union and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club. What’s more, among keepers, he was the first to receive the highest remuneration in a single season.

Starting from the Under-16 team, he gradually crossed hurdles across various age-levels and served the national team for 12 consecutive years. Under his leadership, Bangladesh became champions in the 2010 South Asian Games football event.

This man of the field is now the guardian of Bangladesh's sports arena. Having taken charge as the Youth and Sports State Minister of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government on 16 February, he wants to create a roadmap for radical changes in Bangladesh's sports sector. For this reason, just six days after assuming office, he met with sports journalists to understand the actual state of the country's sports.

On Sunday, at the National Sports Council auditorium, under the slogan "Sports will be a profession, families will find security," he learned about proposals from sports reporters regarding the nurturing of talented athletes and ensuring their financial security.

His philosophy is to operate a politics-free sports arena, from the upazila level to the district, division, and central levels, in order to bring dynamism to sports at the grassroots level. Aminul is not in favour of wasting money in the name of implementing mini-stadium projects in upazilas, as was done during the previous Awami League government.

Rather, he wants to open up playgrounds in every upazila. He said, "The honourable Prime Minister (Tarique Rahman) has asked to focus on fields, not stadiums. District stadiums themselves cannot be maintained properly. In that case, I cannot understand how the mini-stadiums in upazilas will be cared for. I want to focus on players, rather than stadiums and galleries. I will request the District Commissioners to make the empty fields of every district and upazila suitable for playing."

The newly appointed State Minister for Youth and Sports is also thinking of starting the work of producing more athletes by appointing sports officers in districts where the posts are vacant, and gradually appointing sports officers in 495 upazilas. In appointing these sports officers and teachers, Aminul wants to give priority to former athletes instead of considering the BPEd certificate from physical education colleges as the sole criteria. He is in favour of issuing a notice through the Ministry of Education to open up schools that have playgrounds for sports practice in the afternoon after classes.

He has spoken with the Ministry of Education to give special importance to sports practice from grade four onwards. For this, he sought the opinion of the media regarding the selection of five sports. Proposals came from the sports journalists present to choose three other sports from hockey, athletics, kabaddi, archery, karate, taekwondo, and handball, keeping the country's two popular sports, football and cricket, essential.

He also shared the Ministry of Sports' plan to construct indoor facilities without galleries in the 64 districts of the country. To alleviate the crisis of playgrounds in the capital, the State Minister for Youth and Sports wishes to take up a plan to prepare at least one playground for every two wards, and create walkways for all citizens to walk there.

Generally, athletes have not been able to take up most sports as a profession, except for football, cricket, and capital-based cricket. Aminul wants to establish sports as a profession to make athletes and their families self-reliant. He mentioned that the government intends to bring athletes, including those with special needs, under the scope of the profession.

The BNP-led government also has plans to make every sports federation self-dependent. This is why he wants to sit with sponsor organisations and the country's top corporate houses.

In this two-and-a-half-hour exchange of views, the State Minister for Youth and Sports said nothing regarding the future of the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Aminul also did not inform the journalists of any immediate plans to dissolve the ad-hoc committees formed in the district and divisional sports associations, as well as sports federations, during the term of the interim government, and hold elections.