Heart Disease Silently Ends Chittagong Coach Mosaddek Hossain's Innings

A file closed in a cold hospital corridor in Dhaka one morning. A 42-year-old man died of heart disease. His name was Mosaddek Hossain, coach of the BCB Chittagong Division. The news was printed the same day from a Dhaka sports desk. No mournful flute played, only a line was written: 'He died after suffering from heart disease.' I have been to Chittagong's grounds many times. Wet grass in the morning mist, a coach pulling a box of balls in a bag—he is the man who never appears on the scoreboard. I did not first hear of the death on TV; I heard it from a physio who said, 'Sir was at the ground just yesterday.' That sentence is the real beginning of this piece. Mosaddek Hossain was working as coach of the Chittagong Division. His relationship with the BCB was long—coaching at district and divisional level, player selection, running practice. These coaches never make headlines, but the foundation of the national team is built by their hands. Death from heart disease at 42 is not rare in Bangladesh—but every premature death leaves an empty ground behind. If we read this death at 42 only as an obituary, we will avoid a bigger question: who looks after the health of sports coaches? Nowhere in the BCB coaching panel's documents is there mention of medical insurance or regular heart screening. This silence is no conspiracy—it is an institution's list of priorities. Players' fitness is tracked; coaches' is not. Yet standing for long hours at the ground, running practice in sun and rain—these are also physical labour. A death is not a statistic. But if a death does not catch an institution's eye, then it becomes a statistic. The name of that coach in Chittagong may be forgotten by the sports desk next month, but the ground of his last practice will remain—and the next coach will stand on that same ground, in the same silence.