Coach Maruf thinks its wise decision to halt all sports
Feels coronavirus may erode tempo of Premier League
M Anwar Ullah, Dhaka
Maruful Haque, the countrys most qualified local football coach, is very concerned about the parlous situation all over the world following the coronavirus outbreak, and endorses the decision to postpone all sports events, including the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League Football. While talking to The Independent yesterday about the current situation, Haque said, Safety firstto escape from the deadly disease, rather than prioritising sports. I think its a wise decision to stop all sports activities.
Among all the coaches in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League Football teams from home and abroad, Maruful Haquethe only UEFA A licence holderhas already proved his teams potential just halfway in the first phase of the league. Haque, of course, got full marks in the pre-season trial case in the Sheikh Kamal International Football tournament held in Chittagong, garnering the runners-up trophy of the tournament.
Haque had taken charge of the Chattogram giants for the Sheikh Kamal International Tournament only in October 2019. After he proved his mettle, the club authorities inked their contract for the season. After winning the runners-up trophy in Chattogram, Haque alerted all the title contenders that his team would become a big challenger. Now, halfway into the first leg of the league, his team is leading the points table with 13 points along with Abahani Limited. They have won four matches, have drawn one and have lost as many out of their six outings.
The top seeded among the title contendersBashundhara Kingswhich suffered defeat to Chittagong Abahaniare trailing by three points. However, Haque, a cool-headed and soft-spoken man, who never looks excited during his teams big success or after any unexpected resultdespite leading the tabletold The Independent, Its only one-fourth way of the league that weve just crossed. The bigger part is left still to walk; its too early to say anything right now.
Right now, after the sixth round, the point differences among the six teams are only three and all six are in the race. They will remain so at least up to the finish of two-thirds of the league. Hence, its difficult to say now what will happen in the coming days. The time is yet to come to say who will finish on top or who would be among the top three, because theres a long way to go. There are so many issues like injuries, suspension problems, midway transfer windowso this isnt the right time to comment, Haque said in reply to a query.
As the league has been postponed for 15 days halfway into the first phase of the league, teams will lose their rhythm. Though the teams will be in training, practice and matches are not the same. Thanks to this gap, teams will definitely lose their tempo, because all will have to start afresh, said Haque about the ripple effect of the gap caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Haque, who guided Sheikh Russell and Sheikh Jamal to some wonderful successes in home and away, winning the Kings Cup in Bhutan in 2014 (defeating Indian giants Mohun Bagan in the group stage by 5-3 and Pune) in the final and making Sheikh Russell the treble winners, is expecting something better for Chittagong Abahani.
Haque is looking forward to remain in the race till the end: We just assumed that this time there would be the progress in this way. And I can say that till now, the way the teams are performing, they are strong enough to get along. If things go on in this way, Inshallah, we want to be among the top till the end.
