Bangladesh Shooting Sport Federation (BSSF) is feeling the heat after the federation’s procrastination led to their failure of sending the shooters to Indonesian Shooting Championship 2019.
The tournament which is being organised by Indonesian Shooting Association is the first edition of the meet. The hosts sent the invitation to BSSF for the tournament on April this year but the negligence of the federation meant that shooters were deprived of the opportunity to hone their skills ahead of the all-important South Asian Games 2019.
Sources in BSSF reported that, miscommunication between several officials in the federation was responsible for the fiasco.
As the tournament was an invitational one, initially BSF cited lack of funds for their disinterest to participate in the tournament. Later, they notified the shooting clubs that they can send their shooters at their own expense and the shooters will be able to represent Bangladesh in the tournament.
Some clubs showed their interest and started preparing themselves for the tournament but a late application from BSSF for Government Order (GO) meant that shooters didn’t receive government clearances in time to participate in the tournament.
The federation is now under widespread criticism for negligence in duty as shooters and shooting followers alike bashed BSF for not being proactive.
The tournament commenced on August 18 and will go on till August 23.
Bangladesh ace shooter Abdullah Hel Baki was supposed to take part in the tournament along with Shakil Ahmed. Both of them were disappointed for not being able to participate in the tournament.
Former Bangladesh’s rifle shooting coach Klavs Christensen said the federation should send shooters to world events more to get them more game temperament.“I don’t want to be critical, but I would like the shooters to be sent to more international events or otherwise they won’t be able to compete at good event,” the Danish coach said.
“If Bangladesh want to target medals in Olympics or Asian Games in near future, they should pick a select few players and train them well for long time. Otherwise medals will not come anytime soon,” Christensen said.
BSSF Chief Directing Officer Moshtak Ahmed accepted that their mistake led to this fiasco and expressed his disappointment regarding the whole issue.
“Overall we couldn’t deliver. It is obviously very disappointing,” told Ahmed.
