‘We feel betrayed’

A seemingly landslide turnover by the Bangladeshi supporters in the Tigers' first three games of the Super 12 stage saw a significant dip when it came to the fourth and penultimate game against South Africa at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Prior to the South Africa game, the Bangladeshi expats in the UAE had arrived buzzing in numbers and played the role of the twelfth man with their signature-style unconditional support despite having been on the receiving end of disappointments, one after the other.

During the second Super 12 game against England, the majority of the twenty-thousand seats of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium were occupied by the ever-enthusiastic Bangladeshi supporters, who, however, had struggled to keep their heads high throughout the game and returned home with an embarrassing eight-wicket thrashing.

Inevitably or otherwise, the script had flipped yesterday, as not even 30 percent of the stadium was occupied by the Bangladeshi fans. This came as quite a shock to many, including the ICC volunteers who were assigned on the ground.

Even the small number of Bangladeshi crowd who made it to the game yesterday had struggled, like finding a needle in a haystack, to find something to cheer for their beloved team as the Tigers continued their lacklustre display in the ongoing mega event and were bundled out for a meagre 84 runs in 18.2 overs in the process.

Not only the latest batting disaster ended up becoming the sixth lowest-ever total in T20Is for Bangladesh but it manifested at a time and at a stage where even the hardcore Tigers' loyalists still had some residual hope left to witness an act of resurgence, or some form of fighting spirit, from their team when all eyes were upon them.

"To be honest, we feel betrayed. We still had high hopes from our team even after losing the first three games, in which two of those against Sri Lanka and West Indies came as a huge shock to us," said Rashidul Hasan, who travelled all the way from Dubai to watch the game with his friends, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"Despite the fact that we are virtually out from the contention for the semi-final spot, we wanted to support our team. But the manner in which our players played today [yesterday] was disappointing," he added.

While the string of poor performances remained as one of the biggest reasons for the decline in numbers of the Bangladeshi fans in the stadium, the controversial statements from the cricketers at the post-match press conferences following defeats had added insult to the fans' injury.

"Look, win and loss are part of sports, but the manner in which the Bangladesh team are losing isn't acceptable. You can sense from the body language of the players that they are not giving their best," said Mamunul Islam, who works as mechanic in Dubai.

"And on top of poor performances, some of the senior players, including Mushfiqur Rahim, did not shy away to answer the critics in an unprofessional manner, which is even more disappointing," he added. 

"Being a Bangladeshi, we will support our team in both good and bad times but it's just not fair on us if the players don't feel our pain."