‘If you want to catch someone, then must prepare accordingly’

The Daily Star (DS): How did Bangladesh perform overall in their first-ever Asian Champions Trophy campaign?

Arshad Hossain (AH): You know, since all participating teams have been quality sides, both in terms of paper and ranking, I think we had a good campaign and gained much experience overall. In all four matches, we played better than anticipated, considering we stayed out of the international circuit for 40 months. I believe, if we are given more international exposure and necessary facilities to improve in future, we can give all good sides a run for their money.

DS: But the fact remains that Bangladesh conceded 24 goals in four matches, of which the biggest 9-0 defeat was against India. Do you think the margins of defeats were justifiable?

AH: Both India and Japan play in the Olympics. And since Japan also conceded a 6-0 defeat to India, so in that case, I will say that our margin of defeat against India wasn't bad indeed. Besides, we played the first match against India after venturing into the tournament on the back of only a 10-day training. We did try our best to implement the plan that the coach had designed for the India match.  

DS: That implies you reckon Bangladesh could have produced better results if they were given more time to prepare.

AH: It's not that we would have beaten them if we were given more preparation time but we could've certainly produced a much better performance than what we showcased. However, there was no shortage of effort from us to display something good but the fact is that we last played international hockey in 2018 Asian Games before taking part in Champions Trophy this time.

If you observe India, they are playing international matches regularly. Recently, they even managed to beat Olympic-gold medallist Argentina because of their planning and willingness to improve. If you want us to catch someone, then you must prepare us accordingly. We also have the problem of irregular domestic competitions, which are badly needed to draw the attention of upcoming players and to maintain an effective pipeline for the national team as well.

DS: Bangladesh lag behind other participating teams, no doubt. Can you point out the areas where Bangladesh have been trailing more than others?

AH: First of all, Bangladesh lag far behind in experience than other teams like India, Japan, Pakistan. After being used to a particular style of play, you also need to play more matches to experience match situations but we don't have such opportunities on a regular basis. Fitness was the second area we lacked because we recently played the domestic competitions after more than three years. The problems overall were a combination of experience, fitness and technique.

DS: You struck three of the four goals Bangladesh scored in four matches. How do you evaluate our own performance?

AH: Spectators always expect from the forwards to get goals and they only remember the scorers irrespective of the performances on the turf. I always tried to cash in on the opportunities because you don't get many in such big matches. Moreover, I tried to reduce the pressure on the players by contributing to an early lead.