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  Sportsmen are often called ambassadors of a country. Because, they can be the most successful persons in building the country’s image abroad. It is they, who can project the promise and potential of their country to the people outside to earn respect. Winning laurels with commendable performance in sports, they can make deep and lasting imprint in the minds of the nationals of other countries about the spirit of a nation, however small or big , it may be. Besides displaying their skill and ability in sports, the athletes and players of a country can demonstrate their country’s national features and characteristics, guts and grit, discipline and determination to a wider audience on a foreign land.

  Sports is a sector which can unite the entire people of a country, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, political opinions and beliefs. They celebrate with ecstatic delight any victory the country earns against another in any sports event or meet. The state of euphoria in sports lovers moves them so intensely after a victory that it turns their natural nationalistic fervour into chauvinistic frenzy, at times. The day, the historic news of the country’s elevation to Test status in cricket reached here, the people of all ages not only took to the streets and went hysteric, they took cricket in the country with more zing and zeal.

  Bangladesh people have innate love for sports and games. From time immemorial, games and sports have been integral part of their life. The players and athletes have natural talents which cannot be properly developed due to lack of adequate training. About 27 internationally recognised games are played in the country. Kabaddi, Bangladesh’s national game, is mostly played throughout the length and breadth of the country. Among other games, traditional boat race is also a popular sport the people take part in the rural areas.

  In success and achievements, cricket made its way ahead of all other games in the country. Bangladesh has already played in the World Cup cricket and has also won the status of playing Test matches and One-Day Internationals. If not like cricket, the success in chess is no mean at all. Bangladesh was the first in the sub-continent to crown itself with the Grandmaster title. The country also achieved outstanding achievement in shooting at international level. But the success in some sports including shooting, athletics and swimming has stuck in the sub-continental standard.

  The biennial regional South Asian Federation (SAF) Games of the seven SAARC countries grouping Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been held eight times, so far. Of them, Bangladesh hosted the second SAF games in 1985 and the sixth in 1993. After independence, Dhaka staged many international competitions of different games. Bangladesh made its mark in and proved its capability to the international sports arena after successfully holding the 20th Asian Youth Football in 1978 and the ICC Knock-out Mini World Cup Cricket in 1999. Eighteen countries participated in the Youth Football and all the test playing countries took part in the Mini World Cup. Bangladesh also participates in almost all the big international sports meets and events including Olympic and Asian Games.

  After the emergence of Bangladesh, 13 National Sports Federations, including football, cricket and hockey, were formed. Now, there are about 30 National Sports Federations. Bangladesh Olympic Association is the apex body. There is also a separate sports federation for women and a women sports complex at Dhanmondi in capital Dhaka. The federations run their activities across the country through different district sports associations. Besides carrying out international obligations and responsibilities, BOA is regularly organising the Bangladesh Games, the country’s biggest sports extravaganza since 1978. BOA held the 8-day 7th Bangladesh Games in March this year. Bangladesh is also member of almost all international sports federations.

  Like other countries in the world, sports in Bangladesh is also mainly club-based. The clubs are involved in grooming, developing and nurturing the athletes and players. The arch-rivals Mohammedan Sporting Club and Abahani Krira Chakara have made firm footholds in the main three games -- football, cricket and hockey. The two clubs have innumerable fans in the country.

  Despite the emergence of sponsors and patrons in the sports sector, the country’s sports activities are run mainly with government grants. Besides the ministry of sports, there is also a National Sports Council to supervise the federations. A national sports training institute named, Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) was set up near Dhaka to impart training to sportsmen and women for the promotion of sports in the country. Some physical education colleges are also doing the job. Foreign coaches are occasionally employed to train up players of different games. Sports persons are also sent abroad for higher training.

  Literally, cricket has spread into every nook and corner of the country. The rise of cricket in the country in the last decade is astounding. The tiny-tots are seen playing cricket on whatever open place, be it a lane in town or city or a land in the countryside, they get handy. The winning of the World Cup by the three sub-continental countries – India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and the emergence of satellite television also contributed to popularising cricket in Bangladesh. But the surge in cricket has overtaken the country after it qualified to play in the World Cup cricket with the crowning of the majestic ICC trophy championship in April, 1997 in Malayasia. International Cricket Council, the guardian of world cricket awarded Bangladesh the honour of playing One-Day International in June that year.

  Bangladesh, the minnows of the one-day cricket, stunned the cricket world convincingly beating mighty Pakistan by 62 runs in the 1999 world cup held in England. And with this glorious performance to its credit, Bangladesh earned the most coveted and long-cherished Test status in cricket on June 26, 2000.

  As the news of attainment of Test status landed here, the whole country exploded into jubilation and thrill of joy sent endless waves all around. People came out in the streets. They danced, they sang and even they sprinkled colour on the pedestrians in great delight of celebrating the great event.

  Bangladesh has, so far, played 11 Test matches and lost all of them except the one washed out by rain in Dhaka. Although Bangladesh’s performance in Test matches as a team is poor, there has been some remarkable successes at individual level. Former Bangladesh Skipper Aminul Islam Bulbul scored a century in the debut test and young Mohammad Ashraful entered the record book of earning a rare double honour of hitting a century on debut as the youngest cricketer in the world. Bulbul’s brilliant 145 is the second highest score in a debut test by a batsman in the world, so far. Australia’s Charles Bannerman’s 165 stands as the highest and Zimbabwe’s Dave Houghton’s 121 is third highest. Bangladesh skipper Naimur Rahman Durjoy’s haul of six wickets for 132 runs against India is also reckoned as a record of great performance.

  Reviewing the results in Test cricket, many tended to say that it was not proper for Bangladesh to try to get Test status so hastily. But, a number of new teams in test cricket experienced the same fate at first. After independence, MCC first came to Bangladesh in 1976. Bangladesh first played in the ICC trophy in 1979. In fact, Bangladesh then could not put up any worthwhile fight against their opponents. Bangladesh took part in every ICC trophy, but the country narrowly missed the opportunity of qualifying to play in the World Cup cricket after playing very well in the Fifth ICC trophy in Kenya in 1994. Thereafter, the country progressed further in cricket.

  Maybe, at the moment Bangladesh has not acquired as much might and muscle as are necessary to match the power of the other Test playing countries, but it is a matter of time only for the country to attain the required standard of playing Test cricket as innumerable children and juveniles have started playing cricket at the grass-root level. Cricket aficionados believe that the babes of today’s test cricket will soon roar like real Bengal Tigers to bring about a miracle in the game.

  Although the footballers of the country played a glorious role by organising Swadhin Bangla Football Dal (Bangladesh Liberation War Football Team) in 1971, they could not live up to the expectations of the football fans after independence. The success in football, over a long period, was the winning of championship of the four-nation tounament held in Myanmar in 1995and the SAF games championship held in Nepal in 1999. The long wait of the fans for the success in football also considerably caused the fall in the popularity of the game. To bring in speed and dynamism in football, like that of cricket, national football league comprising teams from different regions has been introduced two years back. Efforts are on for developing football and regaining the popularity of the game which is considered the most popular sport in the world.

  Neaz Morshed won the Grandmaster title quite suddenly. A prodigy in his childhood, Neaz shook the chess world at the age of only eight when he drew with the then Soviet Grandmaster Anatoly Lutikov who played simultaneously with 30 players at the National Press Club in Dhaka in January 1976. Neaz did not get enough chance of playing chess in the international arena, especially in Grandmaster tournament, before the 90s. In spite of that, Neaz won the Grandmaster title in 1986. Till then, not to speak of the sub-continent, none could win this coveted honour from the World Chess Federation’s Number 10 zone stretching from Mongolia to Turkey. After long 16 years, Ziaur Rahman won the second Grandmaster title for the country three months back. Bangladesh has also four international masters. They are: Zillur Rahman Champak, Rifat Bin Sattar, Abdullah –Al Rakib and Enamul Haq Rajib. The lone woman international master is Rani Hamid.

  The success of Bangladesh in shooting also surprised all. At a time when no one could think of winning even a medal in a big shooting event, Atiqur Rahman and Abdus Sattar Nini won the gold in pairs 10m air pistol demonstrating unmatched marksmanship in the 14th Commonwealth Games shooting competition in Auckland in 1990. Their shooting prowess also earned for them a bronze in pairs 50m free pistol event in the meet. But when everybody started expecting success in shooting, no big achievements could be made in shooting any more. However, Bangladesh is winning gold medals regularly in the SAF games.

  Bangladesh also earned a number of golds in swimming and athletics in the SAF games. Mohammad Shah Alam of Bangladesh Army and Bimal Chandra Tarafder of BKSP won the rare feat of becoming the fastest men of the sub-continent winning gold medals in the 100 metre sprint. Shah Alam did it in 1985 and 1987 and Bimal in 1993.

  Bangladesh could not attain any noteworthy success in other games in international arena. The country won only one medal, a bronze, in the individual event in the Asian Games when Bangladesh Army’s boxer Mosharraf Hossain beat the Nepalese contender in the heavyweight category of the competition in Seoul Asiad in 1986. Bangladesh won a silver in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games in Kabaddi beating Pakistan in a nerve-wrecking encounter. But Kabaddi was dropped from the Bangkok Asiad in 1998 after the inclusion of the discipline in the 1990 Asian Games in Bejing and the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima.

  Although dropped from the Asian Games, Kabaddi is played in Bangladesh vigorously. Besides Kabaddi, the people in rural Bangladesh deeply enjoy the traditional boat race every year. Sometimes, sports enthusiasts colourfully decorate the boats of various sizes before the start of the gala. Cheered by the enthusiasts from the banks of the rivers or canals, the boats splash through the waters as the oarsmen pull their oars with the beat of drums or bells.

  Like the popular Jabbarer Boli Khela ( local variety of wrestling) in Chittagong, the number of locally played sports and games is not also few in the countryside.