On 3 August, Ektara Florida, a nonprofit cultural organisation welcomed five national cricket team players at the Sunrise Civic Center in Florida on the eve of their second T20 match against the West Indies to be played at the Lauderhill Cricket Stadium in Florida on 4 August.

Titled as ‘Ektara Presents Meet and Greet with the Cricket Icons,’ the programme is graced by Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushifur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mehdi Miraj. President of Ektara Florida— Rubaiya Mamun, CEO Imran Jony and organising secretary Dipu Zaman coordinated the entire programme. Hosted by Kazi Falguni, the lively event was packed with a humorous question and answer session with the cricketers followed by a photo session with the guests. Mohammad Ziauddin —Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA, was the chief guest at the programme and distributed crests among the players.

While talking with this reporter, Imran Jony, CEO of the event said, ‘We are the first event organizer in the USA to successfully hold such kind of meet and greet event with national cricketers in North America on regular intervals. Keeping up with this trend, tonight we tried to entertain the Bangladeshi diaspora who rarely get the opportunity to meet with these cricketers. Tonight, they had an unforgettable night with these five celebrated cricketers of Bangladesh National Cricket Team before the important T20 match on Sunday. I think this event gave the cricketers an opportunity to interact with the fans and answer their questions directly.’

While answering many hilarious questions by the fans, all the cricketers were unanimous when asked about their chances in the series. The tigers hoped they would bounce back on the second T20 to level the series and give the Bangladeshi American cricket fans something to cheer about and celebrate.

(Nazmus Saquib is a freelance journalist now based on Florida, USA. He was formerly associated with The Independent as a feature writer)