Due to security concerns, passionate Pakistan fans like ‘Chacha-e Cricket’ are deprived of seeing the national team perform at home. PHOTO: AFP
Whatever the sport, international support for foreign teams is nothing new and most countries in the world have fans of teams and players from other countries. While Bangladesh has indeed had its share of issues with Pakistan, politics has no place in sports — least of all in the middle of an international sporting event. Furthermore, to express political prejudice through such a petty edict is unbecoming of any independent state and does not reflect well on a country that was founded on the premise of struggle against the yoke of authoritarianism. The Bangladesh government must consider that being given the rights to host an international event is a privilege that carries responsibilities — and the banning of locals from supporting international teams is a blatant and high-level breach of that privilege, which deserves some sort of rebuke or punitive action by the ICC. This is not the first time that the Bangladesh government has resorted to such pettiness during a sporting event. When Bangladesh lost to Pakistan in the thrilling final of the 2012 Asia Cup, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid stormed out of the stadium without applauding the winning team or giving away the winner’s trophy. The same childish attitude seems to be on display here.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (7)
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Bangladesh has served the purpose by declaring a ban on waiving the flag of other countries ( read Pakistan) during cricket match even though the ban has since been withdrawn. Message is clear to Jamaat e Islami and its followers.
@Ricky Before you comment on other countries and Europe it would have been great that you have seen with your eyes and read about it at least. Unless you think waving a Pakistani or any other country is akin to waving Hitler's flag than i can't really make an argument with you. However, we just finished London Olympics last year and i can't count the number of flags from various countries which were being waved by the spectators on various avenues. Infect in recent Man-City Match i saw some spanish supporters were waving spanish flag with the names of spanish players on the flag after the match completion.
there is no such law two matches ago , why this law made & announced suddenly even during in the T20s event , And if this law really should implemented why bcb did not told ICC before getting there nose in to host t20 world cup??? childish act by Bangladeshi board.,
last but not least , i suppose they made this decision because Bangladeshi team will face Pakistani team on Sunday ..!
Waving an enemy flag in all of liberal and democratic Europe is a major crime. For example nobody can praise Hitler or raise his flag/symbols at all. Would Pakistani be happy when some of their leaders even talk about friendship with India let alone raising their flag? Many in Pakistan would love to raise Indian flag but they would be lynched by the right-wing mob. We do not allow our own citizens (minorities) to freely worship let alone allow them to raise enemy country flags. Once again we are indulging in internal affairs of a country as if they are still our colony!
Most "neutrals" at a match, whether at the Oval or Melbourne, end up supporting Pakistan.
Quite often its due to the passion they see in the Pakistani supporters at the stadium, have seen this with my own eyes
And at the end of the day, which other team is as mercurial than Pakistan, or as nerve wracking to watch :)
I am really happy Bengalis waved the Pakistani flags...it does not make them any less Bengali, but is does make them more globally likeable
Grow up PM Hassina
What happened over 40 years ago was awful...but move one!