Can Tigers reach Asia Cup 2018 final?

In Bangladesh, cricket is not just a sport, but rather a spirit. It is something that connects every household, every community, and is a language every Bangladeshi knows how to speak. It is one thing that has the power to keep millions of viewers glued to their screens and feel the surge of adrenaline rush at the same time.

And with Bangladesh making waves in cricket and creating moments that will forever be etched in our hearts and memoires, here are the top five most memorable moments of Bangladesh cricket.

Qualifying for the 1999 World Cup and winning ICC Trophy 1997

Albeit having played their first international game in the 1980s, Bangladesh had to wait for their World Cup qualification for over a decade. After making it to the final of the ICC Trophy 1997, Bangladesh secured a spot in the 1999 World Cup. The semi-final against the Netherlands where Akram Khan's heroic performance left the entire nation in joyful tears.

It was a difficult match to watch as Bangladesh initially lost four wickets with only 14 runs, adding to this was a very unfavourable rainy weather. However, the situation took an impressive turn when, towards the final over, the target was achieved and Bangladesh won the match, qualifying themselves for the 1999 World Cup.

Beating Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup

Another momentous glory was when Bangladesh beat Pakistan during the 1999 World Cup. That year, the Tigers were led by the legendary Akram Khan, where the team ended up beating Pakistan by 62 runs, vastly owing to the team effort by Shahriar Hossain and captain Akram Khan, eventually having the Pakistan Team all out by 161 runs.

It was an unbelievable sight to witness, when even before recapping the last wicket and making the final verdict, the crowd was on the ground cheering for Bangladesh! This victory felt like winning beyond cricket and gave Bangladeshis all over the country the true taste of joy. 

The Banglawash

Who does not remember the unforgettable Banglawash in 2010? This series between Bangladesh and New Zealand will always be known and remembered among the Bangladesh cricket fraternity as "Banglawash" as it was a series where Bangladesh clean swept the opponent, winning all matches.

After winning the One Day International series, Bangladesh continued to win the rest of the matches, and this victory remains as one of the greatest achievements for Bangladesh cricket to this day. It was also the series where Rubel Hossain made a mark in the international scene and Bangladesh discovered a gem of a bowler.

Photo: ACC

Bangladesh women cricket win Asia Cup

Bangladesh cricket truly is an example of how cricket brings a nation together, undivided by gender. During the Asia Cup 2018, Bangladesh Women's Cricket Team celebrated massive victory as they defeated India in the final, enabling Bangladesh to achieve its maiden trophy in a multi-team tournament.

The match neared an intense end in the last over where nine runs were required, with Rumana Ahmed and Sanjida Islam batting. In an unprecedented turn of events, with fours and a wicket, the match ended with Jahanara Alam securing the final run. This was a massive and memorable win for the Bangladesh Women's Cricket Team.

Bangladesh losing to Pakistan in Asia Cup 2012    

Not all memorable moments of cricket are associated with winning a match — sometimes the memory of a loss in the field, especially in our own land stays reserved within our hearts for years. Such was the case in Asia Cup 2012, when Bangladesh needed only 9 runs in the last over to win against Pakistan in the final round.

The match took an intense nail-biting finish by the time of the final delivery when Bangladesh was short of four runs. Being so close to claiming the cup and what seemed like an inevitable victory for Bangladesh throughout their batsmanship quickly turned into defeat as Pakistan ended up winning by two runs. Although Bangladesh did not win the match that time, the Tigers won the hearts of the nation. 

Bangladesh women's cricket team clinched the second ODI of the three-match series against Pakistan in a thrilling Super Over finish at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Tuesday.  

Bangladesh's left-arm spinner Nahida Akter managed to restrict Pakistan to seven runs in the Super Over after which boundaries from Sobhana Mostary and skipper Nigar Sultana Joty helped them past the target, levelling the series 1-1, with the finale scheduled to take place at the same venue on Thursday. 

Nigar's 104-ball 54 and an 88-ball 44 from opener Fargana Hoque helped Bangladesh post 169 for nine in 50 overs.

In reply, Pakistan openers Sadaf Shamas and Sidra Ameen gave their side a steady start with a 41-run stand before off-spinner Nishita Akter Nishi and leggie Fahima Khatun got rid of them. 

 One of the three leg-spinners in Bangladesh's rank, Rabeya Khan took out three of Pakistan's first five batters, including skipper Nida Dar, who top-scored with a 47-ball 27, and Nahida picked up one and affected one of three run out that followed to bundle out the visitors for 169, taking the match to a Super Over contest. 

While the Bangladesh players had counted on 'home' support in Kolkata for their eventual 87-run defeat against the Netherlands, the Tigers may not have much luck on that front when they face Pakistan in their seventh match of the World Cup at the Eden Gardens today.

The relationship between India and Pakistan on diplomatic and political fronts may have remained hostile over the years, but Pakistan cricket team enjoys massive popularity in Kolkata. And despite fans from Pakistan not being able to travel to India in great numbers for this World Cup over visa issues, there will likely be no shortage of support for the former world champion today.

There was enough evidence of that during the Pakistan team's training session yesterday, with hundreds of locals cheering on the Men in Green outside the stadium premises. Few even managed to sneak into the stands and take selfies with stars such as Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

There was an incident outside the stadium where two die-hard fans of Virat Kohli and Babar Azam engaged in a fight over who is the best batter. Interestingly both of them are Indian nationals.

Even during the 2016 T20 World Cup game between Bangladesh and Pakistan in Kolkata, the local support for the Pakistan team outnumbered that for the Tigers.

It takes around 45 minutes to reach Kolkata from Dhaka by air and almost all the aviation companies have seen a surge in ticket sales on this route as hundreds of Bangladeshis made it to the capital of West Bengal to witness the Tigers in action.

But the humiliating defeat to the Netherlands has seemingly dampened the eagerness of the Bangladesh fans as hardly any enthusiasm was witnessed among the Bangladeshi fans ahead of the Pakistan game.

While Bangladesh will have to improve their game a few notches to overcome Pakistan on the pitch to add some respectability to their campaign, they will also have to win against the Pakistan fans.

The banning of the bowling actions of two Bangladeshi players of the national team have not only incensed millions of Bangladeshi cricket fans but even the skipper of the Bangladesh national cricket team, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. As an armchair 'cricket enthusiast', I would refrain from concentrating on the technicality of the rules involved here. However, if the snippets on social media of Mr. Mustafizur Rahman, a lawyer acting on behalf of the Bangladeshi Cricket Board (BCB), and the words of Bangladeshi skippers are taken, it would clearly seem fans' emotions cannot be dismissed as overreactions. The outrage of this event has to be assessed in a much broader context. 

While ICC's actions in the last couple of years on many issues have defied fairness and have often favoured powerful cricketing nations at the expense of the less powerful ones, we need to understand that it is clearly a problem of the ineptitude of administrators of ICC, not of the Indian cricketing fans. Indeed, the ICC is a good example of the problems which follow when money talks and talks very loudly. In the not so distant past, the structure of the ICC had been fundamentally altered to give three Cricket Boards (Australia, England, and India) special privileges on no other reason but solely the revenue generated from these countries which did not only receive scathing criticism from many administrators, former players, and fans from outside the privileged three, but also many fair-minded ones from within. Indeed, the distinction between the 'three' and the rest has made many cricket fans feel that some of the things happening within the cricketing administration are 'not just cricket'. And naturally on-field matters which would have been brushed aside or lamented as human errors, invisible (often phantom) hands have been looked for. The farce that a man deemed to be ineligible by the Indian Supreme Court to govern his own country's cricketing administration continued to administer the ICC, did not help its image at all.

Although it would be simplistic and unfair to brand ICC as Indian Cricket Council as some overzealous cricket fans have done in frustration, it may be fair to brand ICC as the 'International Conservative Council' or 'International Conundrum Council'. ICC's action would often speak for such branding. Only recently, the ICC's schedule for the warm-up matches for the ongoing World Twenty 20, 2016 was so ridiculously arranged that Bangladesh's matches were arranged even before the final of the Asia Cup 2016 in which Bangladesh happened to be the runners-up. Thus, the ICC not so clandestinely revealed that it did not believe that Bangladesh could reach the final of the Asia Cup. It is the beauty of the game that the so-called minnows (not to imply that Bangladesh would fit this tag) on their day can surprise even the mightiest and it is pathetic that those who do not appreciate or believe in this simple fact are entrusted to run the game globally. When many other games (the example of football would be pertinent) have expanded the participation of teams in global events, the ICC has made sure that newer entrants will be eliminated as soon as possible. The appeals of cricketing legends such as Sachin Tendulkar on this issue have fallen on deaf ears.     

The ICC should remember that money is indispensable but hankering for money and money only, at the expense of fair treatment for all cricketing nations, may disillusion many fans and kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. The chronic mismanagement of ICC has given millions of fans more than enough ammunition to be cynical about the fairness of its actions. Despite all its problems with corruption, football, a sport followed almost in all countries of the earth, has probably never been viewed by fans with so much cynicism on fairness in disciplinary matters.

For Bangladeshi fans, it is doubly dismaying that the BCB is not too well known for competent professional management (you would not have to go further than the ticketing circus bordering on scandals before important international matches held in Mirpur Stadium). In a city of hundreds of thousands of cricket lovers, the national cricket stadium has a capacity of only around 27,000 and often in many important international matches, a very high percentage of the tickets are unavailable for cricketing fans at large; this could in itself be testament to the lack of care that the BCB has for the cricket lovers of this country. 

It is good that BCB is, so far, standing by the skipper and other players of the national team (albeit probably after being influenced by a strong stand by the skipper and other players of the team as would appear from the unequivocal words of the skipper). Of course, the administrators cannot behave the way fans can. But they should take every possible action to avenge the feeling of the players within the limits of the rules. While at this stage it may be a very long shot, assuming that the BCB does not get a fair response from the ICC once the ICC's internal mechanism is exhausted, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland should not be dismissed right away. The route to CAS, like all other arbitral bodies, is contingent on the agreement between the disputing parties (here the ICC and BCB) and can be time consuming. However, administrators have to remember that cricket is not only a game to Bangladeshi fans but also a national passion and pride. 

Bangladesh need not try to flex its muscle (assuming it has any) as has been done in the SCG saga in 2008 (the New Year Test/ 2nd Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy), but no option available within the cricketing diplomacy and rules should be left unused. Again, it is also a welcome gesture that the BCB has decided to scrutinise the bowling actions more rigorously in domestic matches. After all, in this time of despondency and suspicion, we should not detract from the fact that even our players and administrators are not very sanguine about the legality of the bowling actions of Arafat Sunny. If we had been able to install a more rigorous domestic regime, this kind of a jarring situation would not have arisen in a global event. All said and done, it is still better late than never. 

Writer is an Associate Professor at School of Law, BRAC University