Hattirck Bangladesh and more

Hi fellow hattrickers. In this post i tried to share my experience in hattrick and also share some great advices and thoughts of the manager of one of the strongest Bangladeshi teams - 'Bengali Hunter'.

Hello hattrickers. How are you doing? I am Heracles the manager of Jaguars in league III.6. Some days back I took an initiative to get to know more about the top Bangladeshi hattrickers and set up a casual interview with them. But unfortunately I became very busy and couldn’t finish the project. Now I have some time and hope to share the nice talks I had with some legends of Bangladesh.
But first I want to share my own experience with hattrick. I first joined Hattrick around season 8 or season 9. At that time there were only 2 divisions. I was a member of II.4. That was the era of ‘Asian All Star FC’. The team was so far ahead than other teams that no one even thought it was possible to beat him. His colorful days witnessed 5 consecutive doubles (league + cup title). In total he won 7 league title and 5 cup titles. During that time the only team that was strong enough to challenge was ‘Brothers union’. But the team was unfortunate to never win the league or cup title. One of the big reasons was no one else even tried to compete with the All Stars but the boys from Brothers. While others slowly kept growing, Brothers and All Stars – the two strongest team of the series – started to lose strength battling each other. Finally, Symbolic BD was the first to put a dent in the invincible streak of the ‘All stars’. He claimed the cup title for himself but fell short in the league. The following season he claimed the league title but lost the cup to ‘Bondhus United’. ‘Bondhus’ was the first team to claim the cup from second division overpowering the top teams from the premier league and sent the message that there are a number of strong teams in Bangladesh. And for a time it was pretty intense as sometimes the lower division had far more exciting games than the higher division. Around that time Symbolic BD was turning out to be the next ‘All stars’ with a huge bank balance and a relatively young squad. He had everything set for him. He had two doubles back to back. But Bengali Hunter stopped him in the league and exponent stopped him in the cup. Now it's the era of the Hunters and lets wait and see who is the next big thing in Bangladesh.

Before ending, I would like to mention the name of ‘FC Biman Bangladesh’ and 'Phantom Warriors'. If Biman didn't get banned then they might be a strong contender for the cup and league title. 'Phantom Warriors' was one of the most well planned team which never had the lime light on them. I remember this team because I felt the suspense of a derby match whenever I faced his team.

Enough with the history. Here is a short interview with Bangladesh's best - 'Bengali Hunters' (He is one of the most active hattrickers in Bangladesh. He is very friendly and helpful and working hard to promote Bangladesh in the hattrick world. Sometimes he is the only voice in the forums. Currently he is also enjoying the national team coach position.
(The interview was taken a while back)

Who is Bengali Hunter?

My real life name is Arijit Das. I am from Dhaka, Bangladesh. I studied CSE from Dhaka University and now working as a software developer. I really like sports indoor or outdoor. I am a great Fan of Real Madrid. And right now wishing Real to win both laliga and Champions league this year. I normally play badminton after coming back from office and i was the CSEDU badminton champ ;) (kinda bragging). I am real sports person and that sports can be indoor, outdoor, computer based video games or web based manager games :)

How long have you been playing hattrick? How did you come to know of it?

I am playing Hattrick for a long time ... almost 3 years i think.... I came to know the name of hattrick from Goal.com. There Hattrick had a article sponsored or something. In that article i first saw the name of hattrick and came ad have a team. At first it was just a see what’s this all about. At first i seemed bit slow to me. But as the time went by i became very much interested in hattrick and started playing it more seriously. I think the transfer market activity was the main catalyst for my staying.

How was it at the beginning?

At first i made loads of mistakes. At first when i started i bought a lot of player for no reason. Then i didn't buy good coach. And also didn't know any long term project. But after some days i read some forum posts and external blogs then i realized how things should work. Then i decided to train Strikers at first. Because i saw in the transfer market that strikers sell for much more money than playmakers. And also as i was in division 3 it didn't take much of playmaking to win the games. So i bought 6 trainee strikers and then started the new journey. I spent 2 seasons in division 3 and 2 season in division 2 to get my team strong enough to come to Premiere league. I can say that my striker training paid off their dividend and now I am one of the top in Bangladesh premier league.

We know you still crave to become champion in the Bangladesh Cup. Is this your current number 1 priority or do you feel becoming league leader is more important? (Bengali Hunter won the cup in season 19)

Bangali Hunters already won Premier league twice and only trophy thats left in hunters trophy cabinet is the Bangladesh cup which can be earned from Bangladesh. So yes winning the Bangladesh Cup is the top priority for Hunters. But we can go on with our season in a balanced way. We think we can both win the cup and regain the Premiere league this season. Although Hunters encountered 2 big blows at the beginning of the PL season but still there is lot of games to regain the momentum. But in the end yes its the Cup which gets the top priority for Bangali Hunters.

It is exciting for the neutrals as we might get more exciting matches given there are several teams in the cup who doesn't need or won't worry about anything else. Anyway, let’s talk about some things beside your team. National teams are a great part of hattrick. But it is disheartening that most of Bangladesh users don't even know about their existence. Far less cares about it. Do you think the involvement of foreign managers has something to do with it? Do you think it is time for Bangladeshi managers to take control of both teams now? Also, we know you have competed for National/U20 Coach position several times. But you never got elected. There were times when you were the best choice but still you never managed to get enough users behind you. What is your take on this matter?
(He is currently our National team coach. After the banning of illegitimate teams he won the election right away. )

I was always a follower of our National team from the beginning. Actually following the NT made me communicate with the small community we had back then. And that community actually made me stays in Hattrick.
It is true that although there are more user in Bangladesh but most of them are not present in community. Sometimes someone comes to the forum and gives 1 or 2 post but they do not hang around or participate. I always tried to increase the interaction between users in the forum, these interactions actually make Hattrick enjoyable otherwise it would be just a slow click game, which in my opinion is not good.
Now about NT, I always think Bangladeshi managers should take charge of their NT now. I think we have enough experienced managers in BD community to take out NT forward. But seeing the recent election trend i see almost every election a new unknown foreign manager comes and wins the election who comes just before election.
I have a feeling that there are a good number of teams in Bangladesh which are owned by foreign users who use those teams just to book friendly games. They use those votes to elect those unknown users. For example i didn’t understand how "Shamil" a complete unknown stranger come to BD and won with this type of 9/10 votes few seasons ago... But well we can’t prove these maybe they are legit users who just comes sometimes and give orders…
And the reason of my failure in NT elections i guess i don't use HT mail for contacting people i dont have any interaction before elections or something... maybe that is needed to win enough vote ... but again spamming users before election is not permitted in HT... so...
But in the end i would say Bangladeshi managers should take responsibility of their own NT now.

If true than that is some serious issue the officials should consider to ensure fair elections. And technically it is very hard to maintain a team in Bangladesh from a foreign country. Officials can easily track the ip address and find out if anything fishy is going on. Anyway, do you think, introducing a bangla forum might induce more activity from the local managers?

Hummm yah ... ipaddress will reveal the foreign teams in BD but still i found some teams who only play friendlies and nothing else .... I don't think a bangla forum will increase activity of local users. I think people who come to play are comfortable in English but they are not active only because they are not interested to write anything in the forum... It’s simple as that ...till now i think many user come to forum and just read but do not ever write anything ... And writing in Bangla take more time than in english so i don't think that will any popular idea ... but who knows may be i could be wrong

Who do you think are your strongest contenders in the league and the cup?

I think there are several teams now who can compete in the best level.

1. FC Biman Bangladesh
2. Dhaka Red Devils
3. Exponent319
4. Angel Of Death(when he plays full team)

But right now with the two new player purchase FC Biman Bnagldesh is looking the best team to beat. And also their current league and cup position also shows it. He has very very strong and young Midfield setup. And currently midfield is winning the matches. Red devils are also not behind. They are almost same position. But if you want to name only 1 team then i have to say its Fc Biman Bangladesh.
Do you follow the lower divisions?
Well haven't looked for teams in lower division ... Normally i look into teams when i have matches in Cup. But i saw some teams who are becoming good. But i see lack of plan in lots of teams. I mean teams do not have plans to train trainees and everything.

Last words?

Well in the end all i can say that Hattrick is a long journey and this journey makes it unique. Also the community makes the Hattrick journey more enjoyable. For new teams i would like to say come participate in the "Bangladesh Forum", chat with us, let us help you build your team. Its cooperation which makes everything much more enjoyable. It will make the beginning hard seasons much easier to overcome.

Link directly to this article (HT-ML, for the forum): [ArticleID=15979]