Fans throng at Tigers' arrival
From red and green placards reading out congratulatory messages to the tireless slogans that were shouted at the top of their lungs, the ambience of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, at least for a few hours, resonated that of a cricket stadium. The generally jam-free roads within the Airport's complex were filled with close to a thousand spectators eagerly awaiting the arrival of their heroes. Such was the extent of their excitement that the roaring sound of a plane could have easily been dissolved amidst their euphoria.
The security staff were initially successful at keeping most of the spectators outside the complex of the airport. However, as the sun set and the Tigers made their landing, many more fans joined in the party and at that point of time they had no option but to form a boundary on the road leading to the VIP arena, where the players were set to depart from.
Even that didn't curb their enthusiasm. Every bus that tried to make its way out of the airport was excitedly blocked for a brief period of time. "Is that the team bus?" most of them shouted as they desperately made attempts to catch a glance of the travellers through the windows. And only when they were convinced that the bus didn't hide their heroes did they let it go. There obviously wasn't any violence; in fact, team bus or not, every big vehicle received a cheery departure from the airport.
Youngsters stood at both sides of the Airport road desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of their heroes in the bus. It was a line which lasted for almost half a kilometer.
The real team bus as expected departed with plenty of security and the fans outside barely got a chance to get a glance at their heroes. But then again that didn't matter because the party went on even after the players left the airport.
Perhaps a reason behind that was that a few members of the security staff tried to bluff the fans early on by telling them that their heroes had already left the airport, when in fact they hadn't. The dedicated fans though, stayed on.
The players, who landed at around 7:30 were welcomed by the BCB director Jalal Yunus and their family members. Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was given a bouquet of flowers and he later attended an impromptu press conference which, after a certain point of time had almost turned into a wrestling match with several media men charging in with their questions.
Towards the end of the evening the Tigers were escorted by a group of security men who had the initials CRT on their uniforms. Upon query it was revealed that abbreviation stood for Crisis Resistance Team.
It was perhaps the most ideal name for the ideal scenario, for there was a mini crisis at the Airport yesterday.
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