Football in hearts of Bangladeshi farmers

Dear readers, very happy Eid greetings to you all!

To the Bangladeshis, football is not just a game, it is almost about life and death, especially when we see the boom of social media in our country, crying aloud and battling for the teams they support. They defend in so many ways and it brings magic even to the rooftops across the country, where flags of different football playing nations participating at the World Cup are flying high. Although, especially this year, I could notice Bangladeshi flags above all the other nations our people are supporting. That was new and must be appreciated. Everybody is concerned about telecasting and featuring shows on Radio, TV, Online news portals and especially on social media personal feeds. All these little inputs are always reminding me how much popular football is among the people of our country. Channel i TV, Radio Bhumi and Channel i Online news staff are on their toes to cover everything like other media houses are covering. Media people are bringing in new technologies for Facebook Live and new YouTube contents to grab the football freak readers like sticky glue. They don't want to miss Russia World Cup fever. They enjoy this heat. However, at the back of the mind, I feel the deepest agony that where have Bangladesh left its golden mark in this game back in the early 80s to the end of 90s. Those were more than golden days, I suppose, and I firmly believe you would always agree with me in this issue. I strongly hope Bangladesh will become stronger as football team in the future.

So what it seems right at the moment is, till 15th of July, 2018, there is nothing more important than football world cup. On the other hand, we must not forget the painful stories of the sufferers who are combatting flood in some regions of the country. The rising water is killing people and ruining people's dreams and their houses, dismantling their every bit of love and hope and desire in the most ruthless manner and, most importantly, dislocating them. They are losing their dear ones and we need to stand beside them even in this joyous moment of time.

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death,” legendary Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly once said. I agree and also disagree with this as I believe it's about passion, and that's supremely high, but life is way more important than that.

I am a journalist who has travelled across the country and many parts of the world and worked closely with the rural people, especially farmers. I had a vital question to ask my fond readers. Is football fever constrained to cities, is it entertainment for only the urban people? No, the cheers and battle that we see in the cities are pretty much less and fall far behind what happens at the remotest villages of the country. My idea for television production is very simple. I want to involve and engage the farmers with the mainstream events that are viral and trendy in the country. As you know, I have been making Farmers' Game Show for quite a long time now and it is a message to those people that during Eid entertainment, farmers should have a space and we must not take our audience and readers away from our roots. And, we need to watch what they do for entertainment. In all these years, this programme has become very much popular and I am so very grateful to my audience, and I also thank Channel i for allocating such a programme in the crowd of other entertainment shows like drama, tele-movie, feature films, comedy shows and all that. You are the judge to comment on how Krishoker Eid Ananda has done over all these years.

Probably you would remember before the start of the FIFA World Cup 2014, I organised 'Farmers' Football World Cup'. And, boy, that became so popular as well! As I wrote earlier, I want to engage the farmers and the rural community with the mainstream entertainment scenario and other issues of course. So Farmers' World Cup 2014 brought me huge success four years back. This year, I am also planning to do another version of this programme in some part of this country. I am sure this will be a bonanza for the rural communities and for the urban citizens of the country. Farmers' Football World Cup, here we come.

Even the farmers who work on the field wear Brazil and Argentina jerseys, because we know these two teams get most of the support in Bangladesh. Some are also trying Germany and there are very few Portugal jerseys nowadays. These have kept on happening in the rural regions of Bangladesh. They love Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, Salah, and they know names of so many players even I do not know. They know about the tactics, football terms and they talk like the famous football managers and try to find the fault in the formation, positioning, and attacking and defensive strategy of the game. It really amazes me. I feel so proud and astounded that these farmers stay so updated with every story of the world cup. They do not want to miss any update, trust me. Online news portals have played a great role in this regard. The social media is feeding us with constant news directed from Bangladesh's most liked news portals. They are devout followers. They are so passionate and crazy about the game. They are emotional at their best. So they are no longer pushed back to the wall, they are at the forefront. In 2011, I also organised Farmers' Cricket World Cup. And, farmers participated with full heart and challenge and the TV audience almost swallowed that programme.

I believe these enthusiastic farmers will keep on producing and harvesting crops regardless of the challenges they face, perhaps like the 'inter-play', '1-2-1'combination, while they quickly 'pass' and 'move' around the 'short' changes in the season and give a final 'through ball' with their unmatchable skills to ensure that crops are produced, because only these farmers have 'possession' to feed more than 160 million mouths of Bangladesh. Scoring goals for them is to feed the millions people of the country. As I have said earlier in this article, I would love to organise another event for Farmers World Cup 2018 very soon. Keep me in your prayers so that this becomes successful.

Enjoy earth's best show-stopping sporting event, Russia World Cup 2018.

Eid greetings and Cheers!