Sporadic successes in a year of gloom

Moments of joy amid long periods of gloom has been the story of sports in Bangladesh in 2023.

In cricket, the country's most popular sports, the women's team pulled off a number of memorable victories while the men's team almost self-sabotaged themselves and ended up with one of their worst ever years in recent times.

The men's football team had a decent year and sprinter Imranur Rahman won the country its first gold medal in Asian Indoor Athletics Championship but the scenes in the other sports remained bleak.

The Bangladeshi archers had a disappointing year, so did the shooters and the kabaddi players, who were part of Bangladesh's contingent of 180 that went to Hangzhou for the Asian Games, an event where Bangladesh returned with just a couple of bronze medals in cricket.

At the domestic front, different sporting bodies were seemingly still recovering from the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as the frequency of domestic competitions remained low.

Hockey, a sport that was on par with cricket in terms of popularity in the 80s, almost vanished from the country as the game's governing body failed to host the premier league for the second year in a row, owing to a lack of desire from the clubs and mismanagement of the federation.

Bangladesh Athletics Federation also failed to hold the national athletics championship this year.

The disappointments in other sports could've been swept under the rug had the men's cricket team performed up to expectations.

But the shocking performance of the Tigers in the ICC ODI World Cup only exacerbated the disappointment of the country's sports loving fans.

The Shakib Al Hasan-led side finished eighth in the 10-team tournament in India, with only two wins in nine games – their worst performance in the ICC flagship event in 20 years.

And their shoddy performance in the World Cup was the trend not an aberration, as before heading over to India, they had lost three ODI series at home and had an underwhelming showing in the Asia Cup.

The first Test win at home against New Zealand and the maiden ODI and T20I wins against the Kiwis in the opponent's backyard did little to make up for the disappointment.

But more than the poor results, the cricket board's decision to not investigate the Tamim-Shakib episode, which was a major source of disruption for the team throughout the year, and instead only form a committee to 'assess' the team's performance in the World Cup, left a bad taste.

In women's cricket, there was no such drama as the Nigar Sultana Joty-led team recovered from a winless campaign in the ICC Women's Twenty20 World Cup in February and turned 2023 into one of the most memorable years for the country's women's cricket.

First came the T20 win over India, followed by a 1-1 series draw against the same opponents in ODIs. They then won a home T20I and ODI series over Pakistan.

Then came the biggest achievements of the year, as the team broke their duck in T20Is and ODIs against the South Africa women in South Africa.

Fargana Hoque became the country's first women's cricketer to hit an international century against India and then repeating the feat against South Africa.

Spinner Nahida Akter became the country's first women's cricketer to be named the ICC player of the month for the month of November.

In men's football, Bangladesh reached the semifinals of the SAFF Championship for the first time in 14 years and also defeated higher-ranked Maldives to get into the World Cup Qualifiers group stage.

The charges of Jaiver Cabrera also bounced back strongly against Lebanon to play out a 1-1 draw in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers despite a demoralising 7-0 defeat at the hands of Australia.

Bashundhara Kings became the country's first outfit to play the play-off of AFC Champions League but couldn't make it to the main competition before suffering another heartbreak in the AFC Cup.

There were also a couple of scandals, first the Bangladesh Football Federation's long-serving general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag getting banned by FIFA over financial mismanagement and then five footballers getting fined and suspended for getting caught with excessive amounts of liquor while returning home from the Maldives.

The performance of the women's football team after BFF's decision not to send them to the Olympic Qualifiers was also a mixed bag and the departure of long-serving women's team coach Golam Rabbani Choton shocked the football fraternity.