Lt Col (retd) Riazul Hasan has recently been made general secretary of the ad-hoc committee of Bangladesh Hockey Federation. The former hockey player and former director of Army Sports Control Board spoke to The Daily Star's Atique Anam regarding the under-21 team's historic qualification for the Junior World Cup, the challenges ahead for the new committee and the state of hockey in the country in general. Following are the excerpts of the interview:

The Daily Star (DS): Bangladesh under-21 team's qualification for the Junior World Cup is the first ever for Bangladesh hockey in any type of world cup. What is the plan of the federation to capitalise on this success?

Riazul Hasan (RH): Our president has already addressed this issue. We feel we should give this team a good platform to prepare for the main event. We will try to give them five to six months of training. We are planning to increase the base of the coaching staff by including a head coach, two assistant coaches, a physio and, if possible, a trainer. We will try to arrange a few practice matches abroad after consulting with the coaches and the team management.

DS: The president has already said that they want to hire a coach or a consultant ahead of the tournament.

RH: Exactly. We have discussed about it. We will soon contact with the AHF or different countries to select a coach or a consultant, who will have the experience to guide the team in the world cup.

DS: Has there been any decision regarding the start of the training camp?

RH: We are thinking about having five-to-six months' camp. The coaches and team management will decide after which stage of the camp we can go for a tour abroad for practice matches.

DS: What about the long-term plan regarding this team and that of the senior team?

RH: When you speak about long-term plans, you understand there are a lot of issues involved, especially in terms of finance. The federation is not solvent enough and we struggle to get sponsors. But we hope that after the youth team's success, we will get a few sponsors. We will not only need this team but we need to get more young players out of the system so that we get a stronger national team in future. We will start a programme, hopefully, by January or February next year, to make sure we get more young players and players from the school level in the pipeline.

DS: There have been a few ambitious programmes taken in the past few years including franchise league, school hockey and women's hockey. What is the plan of the ad-hoc committee about those programmes?

RH: We have studied those programmes. I have already said we will focus on school hockey and youth hockey. For women's hockey, there are a few limitations in the country. We will sit with hockey organisers at district and divisional level to see how they can help us in regards to women's hockey. The women's team players that we have are 16 years old on average. Our target is to keep these players.

DS: The government has set an agenda to federations regarding reforms in their respective disciplines. What will be the reforms in hockey?

RH: We will focus on development of the sport, and we will do that with optimum transparency. We will do everything with consensus from the committee.

DS: What about the premier league and the other leagues, which are the source of income for the players?

RH: We have already had a few discussions over this. We will ask the clubs to send their representatives for a meeting this month to hear about their issues and set a timeframe regarding the start of the leagues. We are working on cleaning the stadium, which will take a little more than two weeks. Then we will open the field for teams to train in different shifts. We will start the Victory Day tournament from December 23, where services teams and BKSP will participate. Premier league teams have not responded to our invitation, but we will allow players to form a team to participate so that they get to play.