The social media war has well and truly begun and as usual Bangladeshi fans are having trouble keeping it gentlemanly.
In what can be dubbed as an encore of what has happened in the last few years, the social media war between India and Bangladesh has started days before the two teams fight it out in the Champions Trophy semifinal.
A picture has gone viral on social media and is being widely shared by Bangladeshi fans where a dog draped in Indian flag is being chased by a tiger wearing Bangladesh colours. It may be noted that Bangladeshi fans often take pride in calling themselves Bangla tigers. Ironically, the Royal Bengal tiger is the national animal of India.
While the two nations have lots of shared heritage, the banter in the field sometimes spills over as bad blood outside. The bitter feud started when Rohit Sharma was saved by a wrongly adjudged 'no ball' in the Indo-Bangla 2015 World Cup match.
Last year, Bangladeshi cricket fans went overboard with their celebrations of reaching the final of Asia Cup as one of them morphed a picture of pacer Taskin Ahmed holding a chopped head of Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni while sounding a war cry. However, Dhoni sealed Bangladesh's fate with a six during the final which India won in a canter.
In 2015, after India lost a three-match ODI series against Bangladesh, a local news paper had published an image of pacer Mustafizur Rahaman holding a cutter and Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan and Ravichandran Ashwin standing beneath him with half shaved heads. The image was captioned, 'Mustafizur cutter' which was in tune with the Indians succumbing to cutters and slower deliveries of the left arm pacer.
While the temperature is rising off-field, Banghladeshi coach is trying to temper expectation. Bangladesh cricket team's Sri Lankan coach Chandika Hathurusingha wants his players to treat their Champions Trophy semi-final against India as a "big opportunity to express themselves rather than a big match".
The mass hysteria associated with Bangladesh's semi-final qualification is something that Hathurusingha is well aware of and that's the reason his outsider's (not being a Bangladeshi) perspective can work as a calming influence for his team amidst the unimaginable media frenzy. "It's not a very big game but a very big opportunity. If we take it like that, it would be good for us. Any cricketer thrives on these opportunities. That's why sportsmen love these games. That's my message to all cricketers -- junior or senior. Grab this opportunity with both hands," he said after Bangladesh's practice session at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground.
Whenever there's a match against India, for Bangladesh's media as well as fans, it's something more than cricket. Ask any Bangladeshi, and he/she would say Rohit Sharma being given not out in that 2015 World Cup quarter-final was a "smacks of conspiracy" because of India's "hold in ICC".
Even today, a Bangladeshi scribe asked one of the weirdest questions, saying, "Coach what do you make of umpire Kumar Dharmasena's presence among the match official, which was a clear insinuation but Hathurusingha calmly tried to douse the fire. "No comments on umpires' appointments. What happened in the past is past," he said.
Asked whether Bangladeshi players harbour a feeling of revenge, which was aggravated by those "Mauka Mauka" advertisements that gained eyeballs during the 2015 World Cup. "There's no feeling of revenge. It's about playing a good game against a very good Indian team. A win would give us a lot of confidence. We are thinking about winning and giving our best," insisted the coach.
He said that they have chalked elaborate plans for all the Indian batsmen which may work on a day but the 'Men In Blue' are good enough to jeopardise on another day. Just like any seasoned coach would do, he played the "underdog card" time and again. If Bangladesh beat India, will it be a surprise or a shock, he said: "Not many people gave us chance to reach even this far. But India is a good team, if we can beat them, it will be a very good achievement for us."
With PTI inputs
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