Is there a psychological barrier when Bangladesh faces India in cricket?
Bangladeshi fans like to say that the contest between Bangladesh and India is an emerging rivalry in world cricket. Most Indian fans will say that this is a bit of wishful thinking, India is way ahead of Bangladesh in almost every cricketing metric, be it ranking, quality of players, quality of domestic leagues, and of course, financial backbone of the board. Bangladeshi fans might hit back with some recent head to head records, where India has lost three out of the last four One Day Internationals. Indians will respond by saying that two of those wins were near miracles that took place in Mirpur, and the other was a dead rubber in the Asia Cup.
The debate can rage on, but what's notable in any exchange like this is the fact that when it comes to facing India, Bangladeshi fans become highly sensitive, wary of not being taken seriously, and easily offended at any hint of a slight. This is a relatively recent trend, and while we can confidently hope that our cricketers don't quite participate in the same mental gymnastics that keep fans like us on a knife's edge during any Bangladesh-India match, there is something to be said about the collective national approach of facing India in a cricket match.
Let's paint the picture. Bangladesh is taking on India in cricket, and the whole country is at a standstill. All TVs are tuned to the right channel, car stereos blare commentary, and storefronts across the country have small crowds forming in front of them, just as long as they have a TV. The game rolls on, scores are checked on phones and computers, even those in commute are starting to stream the game on their phones. There might be a prolonged moment of palpable tension when even the most passionately sports-averse person is forced to ask someone nearby if Bangladesh might be winning this one. The game is usually close, ending with rapturous delight in victory or unshakeable gloom in defeat – the common theme being intense emotions.
While this might feel inevitable given the aspirational journey of Bangladeshi cricket so far and the neighbourhood giants who consistently set new standards in the sport, there are clear instances in history that we can point to that made things this way.
Let's start with 2007, when Bangladesh beat India in the first match of the world cup and essentially knocked out the team that best encapsulated that golden generation of Indian cricket. A highly unexpected victory, this created much jubilation within Bangladesh, but for India, this was a low moment. Effigies were burned, and fans protested the team's woeful performance on the streets. MS Dhoni, the man who took them to the promised land just four years later, possibly suffered the worst of it all when his house in Ranchi was attacked by overzealous fans.
The result was an upheaval in Indian cricket, and much had changed by the time 2011 rolled around. The world cup was on home shores for both Bangladesh and India, and the first game was in Mirpur between the two hosts. Some Indian players were open about this being a chance for them to take revenge, and they played that way too. Virender Sehwag took apart the bowling, and Bangladesh lost badly. Fans who followed the team closely during those days will remember clearly what Sehwag said in his post match interview: "I have said this is a revenge game and we have won. I have said before [that] Bangladesh are not good in Tests, but they can compete in ODIs, but today they could not."
Post match interviews in cricket have always been a humble affair. The comments made by Sehwag hurt Bangladeshi fans who were already hurting from a terrible loss at home, and the heat in this rivalry got turned up a notch.
After that, Bangladesh beat India in a close Asia Cup game in 2012, but possibly the biggest moment in this story took place in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. In front of a huge crowd of Indian expatriates, Bangladesh was still in the game when Rohit Sharma was caught in the deep off a Rubel Hossain full toss. The umpire, however, had a decision to make, as the full toss was high. It was judged a no-ball. Rohit Sharma proceeded to take the game away from the Tigers' claws, and Bangladesh complained about that no-ball decision to the end of the world.
Let's paint the picture. Bangladesh is taking on India in cricket, and the whole country is in a standstill. All TVs are tuned to the right channel, car stereos blare commentary, and storefronts across the country have small crowds forming in front of them, just as long as they have a TV. The game rolls on, scores are checked on phones and computers, even those in commute are starting to stream the game on their phones. There might be a prolonged moment of palpable tension when even the most passionately sports-averse person is forced to ask someone nearby if Bangladesh might be winning this one. The game is usually close, ending with rapturous delight in victory or unshakeable gloom in defeat – the common theme being intense emotions.
The ICC president at the time was AHM Mustafa Kamal, and he didn't hold himself back in criticising the umpiring. This led to a situation where the ICC and its president were in a standoff, all over a no-ball decision that possibly wouldn't have even changed the course of the game. The Guardian came up with the headline "ICC slams its own president for criticising umpire at Cricket World Cup", and AHM Mustafa Kamal was denied the opportunity of presenting the winning team at the end of the tournament with the trophy. The rivalry was now bitter.
Right after the world cup, during a series win at home against the mighty Indians, everything was going the way of Bangladesh. Mustafizur Rahman had all the batsmen looking bewildered, but an incident occurred when the imposing figure of MS Dhoni strongly bumped into Mustafizur and hurt him, and this was enough to rile fans up once again.
The period right after this featured some of the most heartbreaking cricket in the life of a Bangladeshi fan, almost all of them against India. There was the horror show at the 2016 ICC World T20, where Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah choked needing 2 off 3 balls. Then the Nidahas Trophy final in Sri Lanka went down to the last ball where 5 was needed and Dinesh Karthik hit a sixer off Soumya Sarkar. This was followed by another Asia Cup final heartbreak, where Litton Das scored a beautiful century, but the batting collapsed soon after, and Bangladesh lost the match on the last ball yet again.
And all of this build up brings up to the present, where it starts to make sense why the contest against India is so meaningful for Bangladeshi fans. All these close losses seem to suggest that Bangladeshi cricketers too feel some of that pressure, but modern day athletes have extensive support systems that help them to get out of these mental loops. Regular wins against India in recent months might spell a change in fortunes, but facing India in India in front of thousands of boisterous Indian fans is a different ball game altogether. One thing is for certain, being stuck in their own heads and letting the demons of the past chase them around will not help our cricketers. Leave that suffering for us fans.
Azmin Azran is the editor of Campus and Rising Stars at The Daily Star.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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