Sports

Bangladeshis banned from flying rivals’ flags

The order came after an outcry over images of locals waving Pakistani flags during the recently concluded Asia Cup.

Afp March 25, 2014

Bangladeshi fans waving the Bangladeshi flag at a cricket match. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

DHAKA: The Bangladeshi hosts of cricket’s World Twenty20 on Tuesday threatened to ban local supporters from stadiums if they are seen carrying the flags of any of the other teams competing in the tournament.

The order came after an outcry over images of locals waving Pakistani flags during the recently concluded Asia Cup, also held in Bangladesh.

A Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) spokesman said the board had issued a directive after it ‘noticed that some local fans were flying foreign flags flouting the country’s flag rules’.

“We’ve received instruction in this regard,” the spokesman told AFP, without clarifying. “As such we’ve ordered security officials and guards to make sure Bangladesh fans cannot carry or fly flags of foreign nations in the stadiums.”

The country’s National Flag Rules, 1972, states that ‘national flags’ of foreign countries can be flown on the chancery buildings of diplomatic missions as well as on consular offices in Bangladesh.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2014.