Asif Nazrul on Wednesday began his additional responsibility as Youth and Sports Adviser with his first official visit to the National Sports Council (NSC), where he met representatives of sports federations.

Nazrul, also the Law, Justice and Expatriate Welfare Adviser, held discussions to understand key challenges in the sports sector within a limited timeframe, with the national election scheduled for February next year.

"Today, I tried to understand the core issues by sitting with different federations. It seems to me that, in the past, not all federations received equal attention," he said, adding that international success should not be the only benchmark for sports development.

"If we bring elitism into sports all the time, then it ceases to be sport. We must think about the masses and patronise the games that are truly popular among the people," he said.

Nazrul also highlighted the need to expand sports infrastructure for athletes from the Chattogram Hill Tracts.