Khaled Masud Pilot, globally acclaimed sports star, had also once led the Bangladesh Cricket Team as the Captain. Now, he is engaged in training the young cricketers through his 'Cricket Coaching Centre' in Rajshahi. Pilot has always been vocal against drug abuse including smoking and tobacco consumption.
Recently, he talked with Sarker Shariful Islam, Regional Correspondent of Bangladesh Post about the horrendous injury to the Public Health and millions of deaths globally due to smoking in a year. Smoking and consumption of tobacco not only causes wastage of billions of Taka in our country in a year but also over a million of smokers suffer from incurable and fatal diseases like Cancer, Heart diseases, Tuberculosis, injuries of respiratory tracts, kidney failure, stomach ailments and further trillion of Taka is spent for the treatment of those diseases caused by smoking and tobacco consumption only in Bangladesh every year. The global figure of loss of lives and money due to smoking is manifold while compared to Bangladesh.
It smells rat and sounds queer while ' Tobacco has been included as an Essential Commodity in Bangladesh and further strange is that despite the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's pledge to make the country tobacco free by 2040, some audacious government officials have reverted the order of 'cancellation of tobacco as the essential commodity' within 24-hour of issuance of the order. Who are those influential beneficiaries behind the nasty ploy to defy the decision of the Prime Minister to make this country tobacco free within a specific time frame? Cricketer Khaled Masud Pilot talked in detail with BP about the abuses of smoking and tobacco products and the need of a strong tobacco tax for making it unaffordable for the vulnerables of the country. The excerpts of the interview are given below:
BP: While people speak of bad habits or addiction, they mostly mean deadly drugs like Yaba, Heroin, or something of this sort. Very few consider smoking or tobacco consumption as a severe form of addiction. Under such assumptions, how does smoking and consumption of tobacco products influence players?
Pilot: The terms 'less harmful' or 'more harmful' are not applied for addiction. It does not matter how others see it; tobacco consumption is an addiction. It severely harms our health; hence it is harmful to everyone. Especially, sportsmen need to be more careful about the breathing technique. Smoking directly attacks our lungs and disrupts the harmony of breathing techniques. This can be a major issue for someone who has taken sports as a career. If someone wants to take sports as a career, they must say no to all forms of addiction be it smoking or anything else.
BP: Tell us your observation about the player's tendency of smoking or consuming tobacco.
Pilot: As I have said before, any sort of addiction is injurious to us, regarding the pattern of our profession. Still, there are a few who have developed a habit of smoking and there is no denying the fact. The way cigarettes and smoking have been advertised; people often take it as a method of releasing stress. By the time they realise that it is a hoax, they get dependent on it.
BP: Is there any scope of counseling these players to refrain them from smoking?
Pilot: This is an important question. I feel heavy in my heart that we academically do not rehabilitate the sports people who have become addicted to smoking. Counseling is still a stigma here. Behind every addiction there are stories of depression, frustration, or instability. If these people were counseled in the first place, they may not have taken up the habit in the first place.
But we do not have any such system. For drug addicts, there are Rehabilitation Centres but for smokers, there are none. As a result, a smoker has to rely completely on his/her will power to give up smoking. We need to be more careful about the link between mental health and the smoking.
BP: The previous year tobacco took around 161, 000 (One lakh sixty one thousand) lives in Bangladesh. As a national icon do you feel responsible to stand against tobacco under this context?
Pilot: Everyone should feel a sense of responsibility when it comes to tobacco. May be, I am a national icon but if you see closely, we have our local leaders, we have personalities in our communities whom we respect. All of us should join hands from our places to fight this issue. At the same time, we must have the mentality to change our lifestyle and habits.
BP: You have a cricket coaching center in your home town Rajshahi. Do you have any anti-tobacco or anti-drug campaigns in your school?
Pilot: Any kind of addiction is prohibited in the academy compound. It is my rule that no one can smoke inside the compound. Maybe I cannot control their actions outside but I believe I won’t need to control them if my training is effective.
It is extremely challenging to rehabilitate the ones who are already addicted to tobacco. While many organizations are trying to help them, I from my place am trying to build a young generation who will not smoke. I am trying to give them reasons not to indulge in any kind of bad habit. I am trying to give them a healthy life full of hope and creativity.
In our social structure, we have fewer scopes for children to play or engage in creative activities. It often pushes them into exploring harmful habits like smoking. I am trying to engage youngsters from a very young age to get them involved in sports and other activities that have value. I believe when they have a healthy life, they won’t indulge in habits like smoking.
BP: Under the current circumstances, do you think increasing the prices of tobacco products can be effective in reducing tobacco consumption?
Pilot: You see people think tobacco is expensive in our country. But it is not. In our country, we can buy a carton of cigarettes at the price of one packet in New Zealand. That’s how expensive cigarettes are in developed countries. But in our country cigarettes are cheap. But increasing prices unevenly might help the government for a time being but in the long run it will not help us at all.
BP: Why do you think so?
Pilot: We have multi-tiered cigarettes available in the market with an affordable range of price. When you increase the price wrongly, people who were having premium quality cigarettes can switch to medium quality ones. Those who smoke medium quality cigarettes might switch to the lower tier.
It can be harmful especially for those people with lower income by alluring them into smoking as well. We must care for the poor since they have the most when it comes to the impacts of smoking.
We have to find a way where lower-tier cigarettes, the ones poor people consume become unaffordable to them. When we increase the price of cigarettes, we have to make sure that people don’t have the opportunity to switch to lower-priced products.
BP: Thank you so much for speaking with us. Do you have any message to youngsters who have fallen prey to smoking?
Pilot: The world is beautiful and your life is precious. You have to explore this beautiful world. Your life has a meaning. You have your part to play in this world. You can do a lot better than harming yourself by smoking. Join hands with people in making this world a better place.
