The 4th edition of the prestigious Bangabandhu Cup International Kabaddi tournament will begin on May 26 at Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in the city's Mirpur.
A total of twelve countries -- Poland from Europe, Kenya and Uganda from Africa, Japan and South Korea from Asia, Iraq from the Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand from ASEAN and Nepal, Sri Lanka from South Asia and host Bangladesh from South Asia -- will participate in the tournament which will conclude on June 3 through the final match.
In this regard, a press conference was held at Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) Bhaban to provide all the details of the meeting.
Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Bangladesh Police and also president of Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation (BKF), Whip of Jatiya Sangsad and former captain of Bangladesh national cricket team Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, BKF general secretary and DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman, it's vice president Hafizur Rahman Khan and joint secretary SM Newaz Sohag were also in the press conference.
Speaking in the press conference BKF president Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun said: "Our efforts to develop Kabaddi through various programs are continuing. Along with this, we are making our national game kabaddi popular in the world landscape, our efforts are underway to make a separate kabaddi complex in Dhaka. We have already proposed to the Ministry of Sports in this regard."
South Korea, Japan and Thailand have played in the last two World Cup semi-finals. However, Japan, South Korea and Uganda are going to participate in this tournament for the first time.
The participating foreign teams will be arriving on May 23 and 24 while the groupings and fixtures of the tournament will be finalized in the managers meeting on May 25, one day before the kick-off of the meet.
The journey of Bangabandhu Cup International Kabaddi started in 2021 with six countries on the occasion of the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the crisis of the global epidemic COVID-19.
Then in 2022, eight countries including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, England, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia and host Bangladesh participated in the second edition. A record twelve countries participated in the third edition held in 2023.
Bangladesh emerged champions in all three editions, led by Bangladesh Kabaddi team skipper Tuhin Tarafdar.
The tournament in the international arena now carries special importance in the calendar of the International Kabaddi Federation. This tournament is also considered as the qualifying round of the World Cup.
The last three events were held at Shaheed Noor Hossain Volleyball Stadium but this time the fourth edition of this tournament will be held at the new venue Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium at Mirpur. BKF has already completed all preparations to make the tournament a success.
Hosts Bangladesh, the hat-trick champions of the last three seasons, have been continuing their preparations for the tournament since February 8 keeping their eyes on the title. The host side showed the achievement of winning the prestigious title in an international tournament for the first time defeating Kenya.
Bangladesh again beat Kenya in the final and became champions for the second occasion held in 2022.
However, Bangladesh won the hat-trick title by defeating Chinese Taipei last year.
To expand the Bangabandhu Cup int'l kabaddi tournament to the continental level, this time teams from outside Asia and several countries from Europe and Africa have been invited to take part in the meet.
Twelve teams, split into two groups, will take part in the meet. The champions and runners-up teams of the two groups will then meet in the semi-finals.
The two winning teams will play in the final. All the matches of the tournament will be broadcast live by the private television channel T Sports.
