For Bangladesh, cricket is neither a religion, nor a source of big revenue. But the game is now followed more passionately than ever before by its countrymen, thanks to the good performance, increasingly frequent, of the national team, and a new-found consciousness of the present-day Bangladeshi cricket-lovers. This consciousness comes from their growing awareness of the game, and understanding of its economic, political and cultural dynamics. Cricket, to the Bangladeshis, now, is no longer only about cricket; it has become a multi-disciplinary space where they constantly associate ideas of national identity, political history and religion, all of which go far beyond the constraints of a cricket-stadium! Talking cricket is an instant source of solace, too, for the people of a country that is battling political violence and uncertainties for quite sometime now.

Why does cricket have to bear the brunt of so many things in Bangladesh? This is surprising because, not so long ago, even in the early 90s, cricket was not the sport the countrymen followed passionately; football was. Local football teams would lock horns and thousands of football-crazy fans would flock to the stadiums, cheer their favourite teams and occasionally embroil in violence, too. But the football fans always knew that their national team was far away from competing at a global level.

Cricket came to fill in this void. Although featured regularly in the Asia Cups in the 1980s, but it was the 1997 winning of the ICC Trophy that paved the way for Bangladesh to participate in the 1999 World Cup. This was the beginning of the change—not only a shift from football to cricket in the mind of the fans, but also the way the national cricket team has been viewed, now with high patriotic zeal and often with irrational expectations. Previously, Bangladeshi cricket-lovers were generally divided into India and Pakistan contingents in their support. But things changed decidedly for Bangladeshi fans post-1997, now that their own national team started to compete and challenge these established cricketing nations.

There was an immediate success as the whole country went into a frenzy following their surprise win against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup. From then on, any match against Pakistan has been branded as a mini-war, albeit on a cricket ground, somewhat modelled after Bangladesh’s great Liberation War against Pakistan in 1971. Local media and now-a-days fans on social networking platforms never waste an opportunity to allude to the political past in order to tickle the nationalistic sentiments prior to any match against Pakistan.

Things, however, were quite different back in the days of the 1980s and 90s when a huge majority of cricket fans in this Muslim-majority country used to support Pakistan owing to their common religious identity and perhaps erstwhile national identity (1947-1971). Back then, there were sizeable support for India in Bangladesh, too. There were many reasons: the West Bengal province of India shares the common linguistic and cultural heritage; Indian film-stars were (they still are) as big cultural icons in Bangladesh as they were in India; but the biggest reason perhaps was a sentiment that is political in nature—India was a supreme ally to Bangladesh in its glorious war of independence.

India-Pakistan duels in Sharjah in the 1980s and 90s generated as much tension and jingoism in Bangladesh as they did in those countries. Support for India in Bangladesh, however, has waned considerably in recent years, which is interestingly coincided with India’s rise in cricket and commerce in the last decade. The influence of the economic powerhouse, India, on Bangladesh’s cricket is now clearly visible, but this influence has not translated into positive support for India from the Bangladeshi local fan-base.  

The fact that India has never invited Bangladesh cricket team for a full-fledged tour despite being the closest neighbour is another reason that displeases the Bangladeshi fans. The new-generation Bangladeshi supporters now tend to look at any match with India as a potential David versus Goliath contest, and entertain the thought of beating India however unlikely that may be. The recent quarterfinal match between India and Bangladesh in the World Cup created such hype and intensity that Bangladeshi fans were literally outraged with their eventual loss—‘bloated’ the umpiring errors out of proportion, filled up the social networking sites and blogs with hate-posts and videos, and enthusiastically supported Australia in the semi-final in a bid to take revenge on their behalf! The current on-going home series against India has been touted as the ‘pay-back’ time.    

Bangladesh’s inconsistency in performance, too, is often harshly criticised by their supporters. They are also aware of the economic and bureaucratic constraints that plague cricket for years. Yet, the fans have immense confidence on the talent of the players, most of whom have battled the infrastructural deficiencies of the country on their own, and got noticed by being exceptionally gifted.

For the fans, occasional wins against the top eight teams tend to offset the frustration of the heavy defeats that Bangladesh has suffered more frequently. Any win against a big team creates an occasion for a national celebration. In cricket, Bangladeshis are constantly looking for a space to get a relief from the daily failings that inflict their lives otherwise. The country is deeply immersed in persistent political crisis for years with the two mutually-loathing political parties that share the power by turns. Besides, cricket is the only sport where Bangladesh competes at an international level, and where the countrymen can support their national team. This support, often emotional and irrational, includes a constant search for national pride and self-respect. Perhaps that explains why the West Indies team bus was attacked by Bangladeshi fans following their heavy defeat in the 2011 World Cup, or, even the anti-India emotion following their defeat at the hands of India in this year’s World Cup quarter final. Cricket, to Bangladeshi fans, has now become more than a game; a vicarious, transformational experience in which they go through a plethora of emotions that result in them some form of change or renewal—a catharsis.