Let cricket unite the nation

BANGLADESH has made history in cricket. For the first time they qualified to play in the quarterfinals of the ICC World Cup by defeating England at Adelaide. England, the birthplace of cricket, are now virtually out of the tournament. Fielding first, they made early breakthroughs by dismissing the Bangladesh openers but superb batting by Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim and Soumya Sarkar helped them to score a competitive total of 275 runs. Mahmudullah was the first Bangladesh batsman to score a century in the ICC World Cup. Mushfiqur was the second highest scorer with 89 runs against England. After a good start, England lost wickets almost at regular intervals. They were all out for 260 runs heralding our victory by 15 runs. Rubel Hossain took four decisive wickets, turning the match in favour of Bangladesh. Skipper Mashrafe Mortaza, proudly wearing a green and red head-wrap, humbly dedicated the victory to the freedom fighters of our War of Independence.

President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the leader of the 20-party alliance Khaleda Zia congratulated the Bangladesh team. The prime minister urged the people to take out victory processions on Tuesday to celebrate Bangladesh's victory. In fact, the nation started the celebration soon after the fall of the last England batsman. There were scattered processions by joyful youngsters all over the capital city on Monday evening. Be it in a posh club in Gulshan or a street-side tea shop in a remote village, all the discussions now centre on cricket. The 20-party alliance announced holding of victory processions across the country to celebrate the victory and lifed the hartal for twelve hours from 6 am to 6 pm on Tuesday. The decision to relax the hartal was welcome even though they did not lift the blockade. The Awami League and its affiliated organisations brought out separate processions to celebrate the occasion.

Our boys have so far done their job. Have we done ours? The victory against England is only the entry to the knock-out round. Our boys will face the real challenge when they meet their opponent in the quarterfinal. They need our support and our prayers. The people are united behind our team but are they getting the right message? Why should the political parties announce separate programmes? Should politics be involved in cricket? Should we not forget politics for the time being and celebrate the victory as citizens of Bangladesh? I am sure the present turmoil in Bangladesh is also distracting the attention of our players. How do they feel when they hear about torching of vehicles or deaths taking place here and there almost every day at home? Can they concentrate fully on the game?

The writer is a senior nuclear engineer.