Volleyball’s rising popularity
Not too long ago volleyball was out of everyone's sight because of its irregular domestic competitions and failure at international level, but change in leadership and international success has seemingly given Bangladesh's volleyball a fresh boost in recent past.
Changes in the activity over the last five years have seen the national team get success at international level on the trunk of long-term training in the home and aboard while domestic competitions are being held regularly.
The popularity of volleyball is back at rural areas with plenty of invitational tournaments being held in localities, and incredibly, national players on the average earn Tk 15 lakh to Tk 20 lakh each per season, a quantity similar from what a mid-level footballer gets from his club in a season.
"I used to earn approximately Tk 2.5 lakh earlier by only playing competitions organised by Bangladesh Volleyball Federation (BVF) but the amount has increased to Tk 20 lakh to Tk 25 per season since 2018 because I have already been playing a whole lot of local tournaments in the united states. I played 20 matches in Tangail and overall 35 matches from December last year to January this season," national team's captain Horosit Biswas told The Daily Star adding that he takes Tk 30,000 for playing a match organsied privately.
The national team captain also explained the reason why behind the increase of popularity of the activity after quite a while.
"There is no regular training for the national team until Atiqul Islam sir [mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation] was appointed president of Bangladesh Volleyball Federation in 2014. Since that time we are receiving regular training at home and even in foreign countries such as Iran, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. We also succeeded in a few international competitions, so the spectators are returning to take pleasure from volleyball," said the captain.
In 2015, BVF organised Asian Senior Men's Central Zone International Volleyball Championship with seven nations and got opportunities to play opponents beyond South Asia. Bangladesh emerged runners-up in that tournament to draw attention of media, which also gave an excellent coverage in 2016 when the men in red and green clinched the title of the same championships under the guidance of an Iranian coach.
"Popularity has more than doubled, especially in rural areas. I was astonished to start to see the amount of spectators in a tournament in Bhaluka, Mymensingh where eight of our players received Tk 3 lakh each for playing one match," said Horosit, who missed the Bangladesh Games as his team, Power Development Board (PDB), withdrew with five key players testing Covid-19 positive day prior to the start.
"Some promising players emerged from the Bangladesh Games plus they have already been roped in by some clubs but inter-district championship can be playing an excellent role to find out players from the main level," said Horosit. "Earlier this season, I went to Satkhira to play an upazila-based tournament where a lot of young players participated. New players are developing because volleyball is currently played in different districts. Many players often call me to find teams which was false five to six years back."
Horosit, who's enjoys a bit of stardom in the united states, believes the country's volleyball will be progressing locally and internationally if the district leagues, inter-district championship are held regularly and uninterrupted training of the national team is ensured.
