Kabaddi fed defends ban

Bangladesh women's national kabaddi team captain Shahnaz Parvin Maleka and her teammate Shila Akter have recently been suspended for three years from taking part in any competition organised by the Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation (BKF) due to alleged indecent behaviour in front of BKF president during the final of the Women's Kabaddi League on May 11.

Bangladesh Ansar suffered a 12-13 defeat to Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) in that final where the players of Bangladesh Ansar blamed the referees for blowing the final whistle one minute before the stipulated time. Later the technical officials, the referees and the timekeeper convinced the Ansar manager showing that one minute was consumed by timeout. Despite that Maleka and Shila of Bangladesh Ansar allegedly hurled abuses in front of the BKF president and IGP AKM Shahidul Haque, who was 'not happy with such indecent behaviour'.

“Even though there was no agenda regarding the players at the executive meeting held on May 17, the BKF president himself raised the issue and recommended that those two players be banned for life. However, we requested him to reduce it and the meeting decided to suspend them for three years, barring them from taking part in any tournament organsied by the federation,” said BKF's general secretary Nazrul Islam yesterday.

Asked whether they followed any rules and regulations before taking such a decision and whether the alleged players were given any opportunity to defend their positions, Nazrul said: “There is no punishment regarding players' indecent behavior in the rules and regulations, but we had the report of the referees' committee. The executive committee can take any such decision considering gravity of the offence.”

Nazrul also said the decision was taken to set an example before other players.