The Ministry of Youth and Sports on Tuesday announced a Tk 25 lakh grant for training of Bangladesh women's kabaddi team, who recently won their maiden bronze medal in the Asian Women's Kabaddi Championship.

Youth and Sports secretary Rezaul Maksud Jahedi announced the training incentive on behalf of adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan during a reception at the NSC conference room.

Bangladesh women's kabaddi team had previously participated in the event in 2005 and 2008 where they were eliminated from the semifinals. They skipped the last three editions before grabbing a bronze medal in the sixth edition recently, courtesy of a place in the semifinals.

"It is an unprecedented achievement for the women's kabaddi team and we believe it is the start of a long journey. The youth and sports adviser, who could not come due to another important assignment, is very happy with this achievement and we are giving you the reception on behalf of the sports adviser," Jahedi said at the event.

"We are also trying to increase your training budget in coming fiscal so that you can shine again while as per the instruction of the advisor, we are announcing a Tk 25 lakh grant for the training purpose."

Captain Sraboni Mallick said they went to Iran with the hope of winning a medal but they had to face tough challenge from the Thailand team.

"We did not expect to face Thailand in group stage as our expectation was to play against Nepal or Sri Lanka in group stage to advance to the semifinals. But we had to face Thailand, who had a disadvantage of having no coach during the match due to strict Iranian law, but our coach Maleka guided us from behind," said Mallick.

Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation general secretary Shah Newaz Shohag sought support from the ministry, corporate and media houses for more success in women's kabaddi.