Rugby: New born child to our sports family
Friday, 7 September 2007
Md. Mahfuzur Rahman Siddique
THE historic " Paltan Maidan" had been and is being used historically as the platform by our political parties. This chunk of land had been in regular use as a Play Ground also. It's third use is for organising religious ' Mahfils'. To those who are involved in games and sports as organisers and athletes and even to the spectators this small piece of land adjacent to the Bangabandhu National Stadium is better known as Outer Stadium. Some months back, here took place the first ever Club Cup Rugby Tournament, 2007, organised by the Bangladesh Rugby Association.
From the coverage in the printed and electronic media of this Dhaka based four-club tournament (Arambagh Krira Sangha, Azad Sporting, Mariner Young's and Victoria Sporting) the nation knew that it's the Sports Family has been blessed with another baby -- Rugby. So far as my very poor knowledge of our sports arena is concerned Rugby is the latest born child of our big sports family. Hence let us start with a few words about this game so far unknown to the Bangladeshi spectators.
Rugby, a body contract game is played in a field of grass, sand, clay or artificial turf measuring 144 metres in length and 70 metres in width having two goal posts with a distance of 5.6 metre from one another. The cross bar is 3.0 metres in height from the ground and the goal posts are 3.4 metres high from the bar. Each team consists of 15 players with replacements and substitutes. Play time is 80 minutes divided into two halves each of 40 minutes with an interval of 10 minutes. The match is conducted by a referee and two touch judges and is decided on points scored by each team. Scoring of points consists of Try, Penalty Try, Conversion goal, Penalty goal and Drop goal. It is played with a prolate Spheroid Shaped ball. Rugby is an old game. It's origin is attributed to a young man named William Webb Ellis who caught the ball and ran while playing a form of football at Rugby School in 1823. Though there is no historical evidence of it yet the Rugby World Cup bears the name Webb Ellis to honour him. Within 1870, 75 Clubs of United Kingdom began practising the game regularly. A shoe maker named Richard Linder made a special type of ball for the first time for this game. International Rugby Board was founded in 1886. France is credited with the first organiser of World Rugby Football Cup in 1954. 95 countries of the globe from different continents practice and participate in the game.
Bangladesh is the third among the eight nations SAARC countries to have an association to start practising this wholly unknown game in the country. 104 male and 29 female students of Mohammadpur Govt. Physical Collage of the capital took one week's training in the newly introduced game. The two Japanese trainers were Mr. Mitsuya Kodama and Mr. Secichi Suzuki. We wish this and any other new born baby of our sports family a healthy and prosperous long life.
Respected readers may be interested to know the member of this newly born baby in order of descent. According to the genealogical data of our sports family, the Bangladesh Rugby Association is 38th in number. It was born in 2006. It is yet to be known whether we have any off spring by now. Let us recapitulate the names of our sports Federations/Associations in an alphabetical order:-
1. Archery, 2. Arm Wrestling, 3. Athletics, 4. Badminton. 5. Bangladesh Physical Self Defence Council(Bangladesh Sharirik Atmaraksha Parisad), 7. Body Building, 8. Boxing, 9. Bridge, 10. Carom, 11. Chess, 12. Cricket, 13. Cycling, 14. Deaf and Dump, 15. Football, 16. Gymnastic, 17. Golf, 18. Handball, 19. Hockey, 20. Judo, 21. Kabadi, 22. Karate, 23. Kho Kho, 24. Martial Art, 25. Roller Skating, 26. Rowing, 27. Rugby, 28. Shooting, 29. Squash, 30. Snooker and Billiards, 31. Swimming 32. Table Tennis, 33. Taek wondo, 34. Tennis, 35. Volley ball, 36. Weight lifting, 37. Women Sports, 38. Wrestling. Another one assuming the name of Kite Association is reported to have been born recently. Of the games and sports mentioned in serial no. 1,3,4,5,8,13,15,16,18,19,20,26,31,32,33,34,35,36 and 38 are featured in the Olympic Summer Games or the Games of Olympiad. And sports falling under serial number 7, 17, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30 are recognised by the supreme Body of the World Sports that is the International Olympic Committee. The rests are recognised either by Continental or regional sports Bodies e. g. Olympic Council of Asia, S. A. Games organising Committees so on and so forth. Among these some of the Federations/Associations are not demonstratively active.
Whatever might be the intensity of their activities we are not discouraging these organisations. We view the continuous growth of the number of sports organisation with a positive approach. The creation of such as an organisation will engage some of our youth in physical culture. It is a means of recreation which should not be discouraged if viewed under the preview of article 15(c) of our constitution. But at the same time as the highest controlling, coordinating and regulatory authority of games and sports culture in Bangladesh, the government is also under obligation to oversee that any particular sports discipline financially, infrastructurally patronised by it must attain the minimum standard of excellence so that it can afford joy of efforts to the athletes beyond mere recreation. In this age of globalisation each sports discipline must focus its attention on the ultimate objective of attaining professionalism to a certain degree. Else, no athlete will be interested; especially those coming from the lower strata of our social fabric will in the end lose interest in practising any game or sport from merely recreational point of view.
Practising any game or sport for recreation and physical fitness only is a totally different conception which is 'sports for all' and which we propose to deliberate in a shorter detail on a different occasion. For the present we want to express our optimism to our athletes and organisers that they will endeavour for the optimum utilisation of their effort and energy to strive for professionalism in their respective discipline in the face of the continuous growth of sport organisation in Bangladesh. Today's amateur athlete may become professional tomorrow. Besides recreation participation in any sport or game can ensure the participant a future career to earn bread if certain level of proficiency can be attained. Therefore, to be sustainable, the mission and vision of any new born or earlier born sports organisation should be directed as such.
THE historic " Paltan Maidan" had been and is being used historically as the platform by our political parties. This chunk of land had been in regular use as a Play Ground also. It's third use is for organising religious ' Mahfils'. To those who are involved in games and sports as organisers and athletes and even to the spectators this small piece of land adjacent to the Bangabandhu National Stadium is better known as Outer Stadium. Some months back, here took place the first ever Club Cup Rugby Tournament, 2007, organised by the Bangladesh Rugby Association.
From the coverage in the printed and electronic media of this Dhaka based four-club tournament (Arambagh Krira Sangha, Azad Sporting, Mariner Young's and Victoria Sporting) the nation knew that it's the Sports Family has been blessed with another baby -- Rugby. So far as my very poor knowledge of our sports arena is concerned Rugby is the latest born child of our big sports family. Hence let us start with a few words about this game so far unknown to the Bangladeshi spectators.
Rugby, a body contract game is played in a field of grass, sand, clay or artificial turf measuring 144 metres in length and 70 metres in width having two goal posts with a distance of 5.6 metre from one another. The cross bar is 3.0 metres in height from the ground and the goal posts are 3.4 metres high from the bar. Each team consists of 15 players with replacements and substitutes. Play time is 80 minutes divided into two halves each of 40 minutes with an interval of 10 minutes. The match is conducted by a referee and two touch judges and is decided on points scored by each team. Scoring of points consists of Try, Penalty Try, Conversion goal, Penalty goal and Drop goal. It is played with a prolate Spheroid Shaped ball. Rugby is an old game. It's origin is attributed to a young man named William Webb Ellis who caught the ball and ran while playing a form of football at Rugby School in 1823. Though there is no historical evidence of it yet the Rugby World Cup bears the name Webb Ellis to honour him. Within 1870, 75 Clubs of United Kingdom began practising the game regularly. A shoe maker named Richard Linder made a special type of ball for the first time for this game. International Rugby Board was founded in 1886. France is credited with the first organiser of World Rugby Football Cup in 1954. 95 countries of the globe from different continents practice and participate in the game.
Bangladesh is the third among the eight nations SAARC countries to have an association to start practising this wholly unknown game in the country. 104 male and 29 female students of Mohammadpur Govt. Physical Collage of the capital took one week's training in the newly introduced game. The two Japanese trainers were Mr. Mitsuya Kodama and Mr. Secichi Suzuki. We wish this and any other new born baby of our sports family a healthy and prosperous long life.
Respected readers may be interested to know the member of this newly born baby in order of descent. According to the genealogical data of our sports family, the Bangladesh Rugby Association is 38th in number. It was born in 2006. It is yet to be known whether we have any off spring by now. Let us recapitulate the names of our sports Federations/Associations in an alphabetical order:-
1. Archery, 2. Arm Wrestling, 3. Athletics, 4. Badminton. 5. Bangladesh Physical Self Defence Council(Bangladesh Sharirik Atmaraksha Parisad), 7. Body Building, 8. Boxing, 9. Bridge, 10. Carom, 11. Chess, 12. Cricket, 13. Cycling, 14. Deaf and Dump, 15. Football, 16. Gymnastic, 17. Golf, 18. Handball, 19. Hockey, 20. Judo, 21. Kabadi, 22. Karate, 23. Kho Kho, 24. Martial Art, 25. Roller Skating, 26. Rowing, 27. Rugby, 28. Shooting, 29. Squash, 30. Snooker and Billiards, 31. Swimming 32. Table Tennis, 33. Taek wondo, 34. Tennis, 35. Volley ball, 36. Weight lifting, 37. Women Sports, 38. Wrestling. Another one assuming the name of Kite Association is reported to have been born recently. Of the games and sports mentioned in serial no. 1,3,4,5,8,13,15,16,18,19,20,26,31,32,33,34,35,36 and 38 are featured in the Olympic Summer Games or the Games of Olympiad. And sports falling under serial number 7, 17, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30 are recognised by the supreme Body of the World Sports that is the International Olympic Committee. The rests are recognised either by Continental or regional sports Bodies e. g. Olympic Council of Asia, S. A. Games organising Committees so on and so forth. Among these some of the Federations/Associations are not demonstratively active.
Whatever might be the intensity of their activities we are not discouraging these organisations. We view the continuous growth of the number of sports organisation with a positive approach. The creation of such as an organisation will engage some of our youth in physical culture. It is a means of recreation which should not be discouraged if viewed under the preview of article 15(c) of our constitution. But at the same time as the highest controlling, coordinating and regulatory authority of games and sports culture in Bangladesh, the government is also under obligation to oversee that any particular sports discipline financially, infrastructurally patronised by it must attain the minimum standard of excellence so that it can afford joy of efforts to the athletes beyond mere recreation. In this age of globalisation each sports discipline must focus its attention on the ultimate objective of attaining professionalism to a certain degree. Else, no athlete will be interested; especially those coming from the lower strata of our social fabric will in the end lose interest in practising any game or sport from merely recreational point of view.
Practising any game or sport for recreation and physical fitness only is a totally different conception which is 'sports for all' and which we propose to deliberate in a shorter detail on a different occasion. For the present we want to express our optimism to our athletes and organisers that they will endeavour for the optimum utilisation of their effort and energy to strive for professionalism in their respective discipline in the face of the continuous growth of sport organisation in Bangladesh. Today's amateur athlete may become professional tomorrow. Besides recreation participation in any sport or game can ensure the participant a future career to earn bread if certain level of proficiency can be attained. Therefore, to be sustainable, the mission and vision of any new born or earlier born sports organisation should be directed as such.