Aminool Islam –
In this era of ‘collective alienation’, while communication has unimaginably been easier, thanks to the advancement of technology, we seem to have forgotten the taste of in-person togetherness through various sporting events such as cricket or football matches between different localities or neighborhoods.
We, the 80s or 90s kids, often turn nostalgic thinking of our childhood when there used to be lots of sporting events all year round. Children these days also want to play, but several questions lie heavy on them: whom to play with, where to play, etc. KhelaHobe has come up with the answers to all these questions, a startup co-founded by two siblings Syed Manzurul Hasan and Syed Nurul Hasan.
KhelaHobe is a social platform through which one can easily book ground, take training programs, know about ground and/or trainer locations, find player buddies, and so on. Suppose one needs a ground or a player as one has created a sporting event of football, cricket, etc. Notifications will automatically go to the respective sportspersons who have preferred their respective games, such as football, cricket, hockey, and the like.
In a nutshell, it does three things basically: it creates player buddies, helps one book ground, and creates one’s profile as a sportsperson. Whether you are a professional player or an amateurish one, you can have your profile created there with all your records.
KhelaHobe has been quite active in arranging various sports tournaments as well in collaboration with Grameen Digital Health, Quantanite, WCL, and BUP Intra Mgt Futsal.
When asked how the idea of taking such a venture crossed his mind, Syed Manzurul Hasan, cofounder and CEO of KhelaHobe, said, “I am a sportsman myself. I played in the first-division league for Khelaghar in 2011. After suffering an injury, I could not go on playing, but I could never sever my mind from sports. I have seen many of our local heroes, who used to play quite well, stop playing and take up other professions due to a lack of proper support. This is sad. One can take up sports as one’s profession as well.”
“There are, for instance, many trainers who perhaps don’t understand marketing as such or don’t get such a platform. If they affiliate with us, we will do branding and marketing for them. This being only a sports-centric App, trainers or sportspersons can take up this platform to pursue their careers in sports,” he added.
Officially launched around March 2021, and becoming available on the Google Play Store in October 2021, KhelaHobe started its operation in February 2022. It has already been selected as an ICT portfolio startup and granted a grand amount of 10 lac Taka from the Information and Communication Technology Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Government of Bangladesh. It has also received an 11 thousand US dollar equivalent server-related credit from AWS.
“We’ve so far been receiving an overwhelming response both from parents and their children,” said co-founder Manzurul, “Once, we had to take permission from parents for playing; it’s now been the other way around. Now parents themselves want their children—both male and female—to play”.
Manzurul dreams that different neighborhoods of the country will again get together and stay united through this sports platform as they did back in the day. Besides, this, he hopes, will be a blessing for sportspersons eager to build a career in sports, like LinkedIn is for job seekers.
Games that have almost gone extinct will be revived through this platform. If provided with proper commercial support, the sports of the country will grow way stronger and be established as an industry, according to the CEO.
To play, get trained, find player buddies or learn more, you can visit their website: http://khelahobe.com.bd/
