The emotions cricket stirs in Bangladesh
Move over Pakistan, Bangladesh are here, entourage and all, with a sizeable travelling media contingent in tow too. More are expected to hop on that bandwagon once it reaches Kolkata where Bangladesh play two matches. For hotels dotting Sudder Street, Lindsay Street, Kyd Street and Mirza Ghalib Street—bordering what is known as Little Bangladesh here—it should be an extended Durga Puja. Rooms will be booked out, sales could pick up at New Market, the cold storage of ilish may get an extra sprinkling of salt (it enhances the flavour so no harm there) and leading cardiologists could get a few unannounced visits.
Bangladesh’s captain Shakib Al Hasan (C) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of New Zealand’s Devon Conway during the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup(AFP)
But that’s still a week away. Chances are Bangladesh will land in Kolkata in a foul mood. A defeat need not trigger that, although chances of it are sky-high with Bangladesh bracing for an Indian juggernaut in Pune. No, this is beyond the field. By now you must have seen, heard and read reports of Litton Das asking hotel security to evict Bangladesh reporters milling around the reception area on Sunday. It obviously didn’t go down well. Sure, reporters from the subcontinent are used to the occasional banishment from team hotels but not in Bangladesh where the player-scribe relationship still holds on to a semblance of mutual respect.
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So when Das lost his composure, the Bangladesh press lost their collective cool. Reports slamming Das’s “unacceptable” behaviour soon started populating websites and social media.
Choosing to see the lighter side of the incident, an eminent Bangladeshi journalist wrote how he was a little concerned, even scared, since he too was putting up at the team hotel and Litton may not like that. Another journalist poked fun by posing at the Ghorawadi Caves, since “Litton questioned his presence at the hotel”. A senior journalist, however, didn’t mince words on social media, saying “a reluctant apology might not be enough to control the damage.”
The said ‘apology’ came in the form of a statement on social media where Das said he hadn’t anticipated so many journalists camping at the hotel. But the actual in-person apology came from former captain and team director Khaled Mahmud, requesting the media not to spin a negative twist on the incident for the sake of the campaign.
Only time will tell if they will heed that request. For Bangladesh is cricket’s most tempestuous territory where emotion fuels the smallest of debates and decision-making swings wildly between reason and the absurd. When Bangladesh won the ICC Trophy in 1997 to qualify for the World Cup for the first time, their coach Gordon Greenidge was feted and given an honorary citizenship. But he was sacked hours before their famous victory against Pakistan during the 1999 World Cup, ostensibly for questioning the prematurity of Bangladesh’s Test status.
Promotion was mostly Jagmohan Dalmiya’s handiwork, which once achieved prompted India to travel to Dhaka for Bangladesh’s first Test in 2000. But the goodwill has taken a severe beating in the last decade or so.
First shots were fired by Virender Sehwag when he called Bangladesh’s Test side ‘ordinary’ in 2010. Biggest precipitating factor however was a no-ball that gave a reprieve to Rohit Sharma during the 2015 quarter-final defeat, prompting fierce protests.
Two months later, when India toured Bangladesh, a cola company came up with an advertisement where a Bengali pokes fun at a Pakistan supporter for losing the ODI series to Bangladesh. In reply the Pakistani finds him a bamboo and says, “Jaa rahe ho na Bangladesh? Milega, barabar milega (Going to Bangladesh, right? You too will get it). No amount of passion or emotion could have justified blurring the sensitive line between clever banter and distasteful jingoism.
It won’t be overreaching to say the players are at the heart of Bangladesh’s image as a deeply emotional cricketing nation. Shakib Al Hasan is a once-in-a-generation allrounder, a global face of Bangladesh and a name commercial entities kneel over while seeking endorsement.
But Shakib also has a notoriously short fuse. He confronts umpires and spectators, kicks down stumps, gesticulates on live television, gets suspended and his IPL NOC revoked, and still becomes captain. Which is bizarre because not long back current board president Najmul Hassan had slammed Shakib’s ‘attitude problem’, warning that the other players too had “started to behave like him (Shakib)”. Sunday’s episode only proves Hassan right, but also poses the question why Shakib is the captain despite Hassan’s well-documented reservation.
Shakib wouldn’t have been leading had it not been for Tamim Iqbal’s sudden retirement. But it wasn’t so sudden after all. A widely loved character, Iqbal was captain for more than two years. An interview of Hassan, where he questioned Iqbal’s decision to play to “check his fitness”, however poured fuel to fire and Iqbal soon called it quits.
One thing led to another, and within days Iqbal overturned his retirement after former captain and current parliamentarian Mashrafe Mortaza brokered a meeting attended by Hassan at Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s residence.
Any other country, and that should have been that, but Bangladesh continue to defy logic like only they can. Iqbal wasn’t making it easy for anyone, blaming the board for playing ‘dirty’ games with him. But the penny dropped when he was left out of the World Cup squad.
Hours later, Shakib hit out at Iqbal in an interview, calling him ‘childish’ for putting his own interests ahead of the team’s. No one knows who is right but once again it highlighted nothing in Bangladesh cricket has to work to a rhyme or reason.
