Sunday, April 08, 2007

You Must Be A Bangladeshi Cricket Fan If ...

Being a Bangladeshi cricket fan means victories over big teams are like Eid - they are extremely fun when they happen but only occur twice a year.


Even though our team has improved considerably, old habits are hard to break. With this in mind, I give you -

Signs You Must Be A Bangladeshi Fan If:

  • The first thing you look when you check the scoreboard is the wickets column. Who cares if we have scored 10 runs in 10 overs, as long as the wickets column reads 0 wickets down, we are GOOD.

  • Every time our batsman goes for a swing your heart is in your mouth. We are almost equally happy to see a "well left" ball as a boundary hit.

  • Javed Omar scores 17 runs in 41 balls and then praises the opening partnership. You actually agree that this is a good performance from an opener.

  • No matter how good the situation is for Bangladesh, you are quietly confident of our team's ability to screw it up royally. Therefore, even if the opposition requires 17 runs per over you still can't relax until the last ball.

  • You also harbor grand delusions that no matter how bad the scoreboard is, someone will come and smash 100 runs in 30 balls or take 6 wickets in an over. You genuinely believe it will happen.

    Fun and jokes aside, I would like to thank the Bangladeshi cricket team for making us dream again, giving joy to a poverty-stricken country of 150 million and giving us all a cause to unite behind, once again.

    Joy Bangla!

    B'deshi fans in Toronto
  • 15 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    I don't know - every time I see Mushfique Rahim I want to give him a lollypop and pat him on the head LOL but Go Tigers!

    Em said...

    Salaam.

    Haha, those are so true, it's actually eerie :). Our bowling and fielding is already good enough to be a top 8 team I think, Alhamdulillah. Our batting, well, I often wonder who our batsmen really are... if someone asks before a game who will top score for Bangladesh, you might just be right if you pick randomly *sigh*.

    Farah, don't you just love him chirping away constantly, shouting words of encouragement to the team?

    Anonymous said...

    who's mushfique rahim?

    mezba said...

    Farah: haha that's exactly what my friends were saying - but the best thing he did was sacrifice his own wicket for Ashraful.

    Em: I think we have the potential to beat WI, IRE and ENG. I think as soon as we score enough runs, we are in the game. ODI is a batman's game, after all.

    I think Rahim is one of the more vocal keepers - it's good - keeps the energy levels of the fielding side up and puts the batting team on edge.

    Nowal: Mushfique Rahim is our teenage wicketkeeper.

    Oh, btw, we beat South Africa yesterday, and by lots of runs.

    Anonymous said...

    Congrats to Bangladesh on their win. Bring on the underdogs! Always makes for interesting play!

    Jibonjatri said...

    Yes, I couldn't believe Golla when he said the opening partnership was doing great!!! My goodness. I really think they should have Shahriar Nafees back in the team. Nafees was not getting any runs, and consequently got dropped. IN that regards, shouldn't Bashar drop himself out of the team? But, I think I am liking his "cool-head". I still miss Akram Khan. I think he really had the "cool head"!

    Actually, Bangladesh plays well in a good weather. The Aus match was ridiculously truncated and were interrupted by rains for like a million times. It is hard to focus when you have to go back to pavilion every 25 th minute. So that disaster was understandable. So, if we can get a sunny day, and some wind working FOR our spinners, it will be great. Our opening batsmen need to score fast runs. THe middle order is doing great. And that's all it matters. They really can shape up the game. So I am "happy" with the batting line-up, but would like to have Nafees back to have better opening than Golla! I still can't figure out how they are doing this RR calculation. Bangladesh is royally screwed by run rate. :(

    Anonymous said...

    Congratulations! (I am not a big fan of cricket but this sounds really important!)

    Suroor said...

    Congratulations!!!!

    Anonymous said...

    Its really great day for us...bangladeshi cricket team played really fantastic....Congrats to you too Mezba bhaia...seems u had great fun...:)

    mezba said...

    Mousehunter: Thanx. It seemed the whole West Indies was supporting us that day at the stadium. Hooray for the underdog.

    Squarecut: Why is his nick Golla, which means Zero? How did he EVER get that name? Wait, don't tell me ...

    I actually think he did ok - better than Nafees. At least we are now scoring till 40 before a wicket.

    I also agree - I hope we can play a full game and not a 20-20. As long as we score 250+ we can always defend it. InshAllah.

    Saqi, Suroor, Samiha: Thanx.

    Jibonjatri said...

    How do I know his nick "Golla"? You would know it if you grew up in Bangladesh COMPLETELY , or at least around 96-97. Also, my friend's older brother was a pacer in the national team at that time, so we knew about a lot of inside stuff of the team anyway. However, I actually don't kno why it is "golla". Even Jonokontho would call him "golla"! He is a king of "DUCK" anyway! :)

    No hating! I like him, but I ish he gets more run this time. Otherwise, Nafees definitely has better style. Cricket is ALL ABOUT style. ;)

    The Bengali Fob said...

    My parents update me everyday on how Bangladesh is doing even though they have no idea how the game works...

    mezba said...

    squarecut: no, haven't lived in b'desh - didn't really know the players until the World cup.

    BFOB: hehe

    person said...

    it was good seeing bangladesh doing well, but sad to see bangladesh and pakistan losing to Ireland!

    there's something about us asian teams when we play a Minnow, we just think we've won before the game.

    mezba said...

    Tora: Lol hard to think of B'desh thinking of someone else as 'minnow'.