Tiger Pride

During my travels I have found that every nation has found something or someone to be extremely proud of, so proud that it can be an executable offence to whisper a bad word on the subject. In Thailand its the King, in China its Chairman Mao, Vietnam Uncle Ho, Turkey its Kemal Attaturk, in Ireland its the Guinness, in Scotland it’s the fact that they’re not England, Jamaica its Bob Marley and the Ganga, America has its gun laws (or lack thereof) and even us Aussies have Bob Hawke and his drinking record!

But the Bangladeshis seem to have a great amount of pride for everything of theirs – the language (what other country has a national holiday to celebrate their language?), the tea hills, the design of their rickshaws, the longest beach in the world (although Wikipedia says that there are many longer… but never claim that to a local!), their two Nobel Laureates… the list is endless. Over the last two months you can add ‘The Tigers’ to that list. For those unknown to who “The Tigers” are, they are the national cricket team named after the national animal of Bangladesh that is said to be seen as commonly as its Tasmanian namesake.

The country was in a state of euphoria during the Cricket World Cup. Their Tigers, ranked last out of all test playing nations were the pride of Bangladesh throughout the 6 week cup journey. The excitement started with a win over eventual semi-finalists New Zealand in a warm-up game, the talk on the street was whether they could continue this form into the Tournament – the media down talked it just a fluke and that it was NZ that played badly… How the media ate their words!

Three AM on the 18th March will be a defining time in the short history of Bangladesh, for they had beaten their former colonial rulers, India, in what could only be described as a massive upset, a result that saw the powerhouse Indians knocked out of the World Cup.

In all of the excitement, the citizens took to the street, but with a strange sense of confusion. Confusion, not because they had registered the biggest sporting win in their country’s history, but because it was one of the first times that Bangladeshis were united on the streets with excitement and patriotism, rather than the all so common strikes and hartals against the country’s continual corrupt government. This time there was no throwing of projectiles or burning of political effigies. Rather there was the hugging of strangers as every man and his son danced down street singing “My Bangladesh, Your Bangladesh, Our Bangladesh”. That morning all newspapers were delivered late as the print run did not start until the celebrations had finished and reported. The newspapers had digested the words that they had written a week ago and honoured the Tigers with a red font headline, a headline font that was last used when the State of Emergency was announced.

Although the Tigers lost their following game to Sri Lanka, there was even more dancing and singing in the streets after the Tigers beat Bermuda and had against all expectations qualified the for the following stage of the tournament. Celebrations continued long into the morning, headlines were again red, along with many of the revellers eyes, as they made their way to work straight from the celebrations.

The following game they were drawn against Australia. Who was I to support - My mother nation of 23 years or my newly adopted home? My decision was easily made when I was informed that if Bangladesh did indeed beat Australia the chances of a national holiday being called were quite high. I grabbed a green and red bandanna and followed the hordes to Dhaka University, the only live site within Dhaka. Upon arrival, we found that the area had been closed off, not even uni students were being allowed in. The site had been packed full with the students taking up every vantage point that they could find, from the roofs of surrounding buildings to the branches on the adjacent trees. For once it was beneficial to be the white foreigner in a sea of black locals, as we were allowed to squeeze in with the local fans that had already started to sing and dance.

The game did not start for 5 hours as the rain stalled proceedings, but this rain did not hold back the Deshi’s from dancing and singing as to each of the revellers that day at Dhaka University their Tigers were already winners! The eventual thumping from the Aussies and many other teams within the world cup only put a small halt on the celebrations… as Their Tigers were now competing on the world stage!