On Monday 15^th June, Bishwanath Sports Association (BSA) held their kit launch at The Famous Curry Bazaar, Brick Lane and announced their new sponsorship deal with Curry Bazaar Foundation to a restaurant packed with BSA Management, volunteers, players, supporters and well-wishers from Bishwanath and beyond including the management committee of Bishwanath Probashi Education Trust (BPET), ex ILFL Chairman Rashid Ali, Cllr Amin Rahman Rahman, Cllr Bodrul Choudhury and former LBTH Speaker Ahbab Hussain.

Koyes Miah, Chairman of BSA opened the session and welcomed all the guests. He remembered his predecessor and founder of BSA, Late Dawlath Khan Babul. He introduced the sponsor Rashal Ahmed of Curry Bazaar Foundation, who will sponsor BSA Upazila Football kits for the next 5 years, a smooth handover from Graam Bangla, Brick Lane.

Anfor Ali, BSA Secretary, also welcomed all the guests and talked about unity and bringing people from Bishwanath together through sports and community initiatives.

Khalis Miah, BSA Head of Sports, introduced BSA projects for the year, not just football tournaments, but including badminton, Carrom and newly added T10 Cricket. He also mentioned the special recognition tournament for late Dawlath Khan Babul on 13^thSeptember, named the Dawlath Khan Babul Memorial Tournament.

Team Managers Yakub (Upazila Vets) and Juman (Upazila Open Age) spoke about their scouting and training sessions to pick the best of the best from around the country. They reiterated that it is often too difficult to narrow it down to the 8-12 players as there are so many talented players for Bishwanath unlike other Upazilas.

Some of the key guests also made key remarks;

Guljar Khan of BPET said it is amazing to see all the youngsters and elders come together from across the country; hence they were proud to sponsor from Graam Bangla when Bishwanath won 3 times during their sponsorship deal and wished Curry Bazaar Foundation similar success if not more.

Cllr Amin Rahman said “It gives me great pleasure to be the only councillor in Tower Hamlets rooted in Bishwanath and support the football with passion. He said with what he’s seen so far, there is no doubt why we can’t win it again make it 5 or 6 times.”

Others present from BPET and made remarks were Aklaqur Rahman, Misbah Uddin, Abdu Rahim Ronju, Nasar Ali Lilu.

The new kit was then showcased by some of the players that were present; Abdul Hussain, Kabir Uddin, Jabed Khan and Sadique Ali to name a few.

Koyes then introduced Rashal, of Curry Bazaar Foundation and explained a bit about their background. It was created to recognise the late Alhaj Abdul Mannan Surab Ali, who was known and admired in Brick Lane and in Bangladesh. In 1996, he opened Curry Bazaar; a business built on hard work, honesty and community values. Curry Bazaar Foundation was created to continue his legacy of giving and helping others.

BSA UK, founded in 2015, aims to represent British-Bishwanathis across the UK in various sports such as football and badminton. To find out more about the work of BSA, you can follow on social media facebook.com/bsa.