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CRICKET is now the most popular game in our country and players like Mustafizur, Tamim, Shakib enjoy a huge following not only at home, but also in the countries where cricket is played.
Football has taken a back seat in our country for quite sometime now although it was the most popular sport till early eighties of the last century. Common people used to throng at the Dhaka stadium to watch first division football league matches.
Salauddin, Chunnu, Salam, Badal, Emily, Kaisar Hamid, Pakir Ali, Emeka were household names and enjoyed celebrity status and huge popularity down to grass root level. The situation is just the reverse and most sport loving people do not know even the names of our football players.
Football is highly popular in most countries of the world and we must revive the lost glory of football in our country too to mark our presence in the international arena.
People of our country still loves football as is evident from the widespread craze created during every world cup competition. This is because the standard of our football has gone down to a level that fails to attract the people any more.
Bangladesh now occupies the 178th position in FIFA world ranking, whereas in 1996 it was at the 110th position.
All this has happened due to deterioration in quality of our football. I hope Bangladesh Football Federation will bring back life in to Bangladesh football again so that new fresh talents can emerge and present superior football.
Nadim Javed
Tejgoan, Dhaka