Tigers given grand reception

Less than 24 hours after a hard-fought loss to New Zealand at The Oval, the Bangladesh High Commission did their best to ensure that the national team's spirits were lifted sufficiently for tomorrow's World Cup match against hosts England at the Cardiff Wales Stadium by welcoming the team in a ceremony at The National Assembly for Wales on Thursday evening.

At around 6:20pm on a sunlit evening, the sharply dressed Bangladesh players arrived at the picturesque Cardiff Bay where the National Assembly is located. Bangladesh's high commissioner to the United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasneem hosted the event, where Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam was the guest of honour.

Julie Morgan AM, deputy minister for health and social services, Cardiff North, Fergus Auld, representative of UK foreign and commonwealth office, Noim Uddin Riaz, BCC UK president,  and Eluned Morgan, minister for international relations and the Welsh language, also spoke at the ceremony. The overarching theme of the speakers was a celebration of the friendship between Bangladesh and Wales, as well as the United Kingdom.

In the absence of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan -- who had to leave the UK yesterday because of an emergency -- Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud spoke at the event, as did skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who talked about having good memories of the region as Bangladesh had won both their matches here, in 2005 against Australia and then against New Zealand in the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Before the speeches, the Tigers were treated to a traditional Bangladeshi dance performance and as the event ended, a video package of Bangladesh's best moments on the field of cricket were played, accompanied by a live sitar and tabla performance.

Shahriar Alam also talked about the upcoming World Cup for parliamentarians, in which eight countries will participate from July 8 to 15. With Mashrafe now an elected member of parliament -- which the high commissioner mentioned in her speech -- the state minister for foreign affairs said that he hoped that the Bangladesh skipper would not be available for the tournament, as it would mean that Bangladesh would have exited before the semifinals.