Go Tigers!

Last week Dan and I got the awesome opportunity to attend an international cricket match! The teams were Bangladesh vs. Zimbabwe. I would love to be the kind of writer that could just whip out an awesome run-down on the entire match, highlighting the most riveting points and downfalls so that my readers could feel the same tension we felt in the last 10 minutes, or the elation that simply filled the stands when Bangladesh won. Sadly, I'm just not that kind of writer. Plus, while the match lasted for 9 hours and probably provided many satisfying, story-worthy moments, I only went to the last two hours or so.

I'm definitely no cricket expert. In fact, with the exception of one rainy day when I was stranded in my hotel bar in Chennai (which turned out to be awesome) and the movie Lagaan, I haven't watched much cricket. Luckily, Dan has lived in Australia, and had some time the day of to do a quick refresher course online so he caught me up to speed on all of the nitty gritty details of how to play (or watch) cricket.

On the drive out to the stadium we went through parts of Chittagong that I had never been to. One interesting stretch of road was lined with gigantic mountains of waste. But, when I looked closer I could see that it was all organized- so there was one gigantic mountain that was all old shoes, or one gigantic mountain that was all fabric scraps. I wonder what the process is that these things are going through, and where they'll eventually end up.

We had free tickets that were in the "nicer" part of the stadium. This basically meant that it was less crowded, and was covered. All of the seating was actually separated from the field by a high barbed wire fence. Something else that was a little jarring at first was that there were many many armed guards around us at all times. I remember vaguely reading a blog about Australians following their cricket team to Chittagong and watching as the "cheap seats" erupted into a small riot during the match. I'm guessing this is why the guards were there.

By the time we got there the Bangladesh team was already batting, and it looked like it was going to be a close game. In the end it came down to 1 wicket left, 6 overs and about 15 runs left before Bangladesh could take the lead. Luckily they had a few great hits and got enough runs to win! Near the end though the stands were going crazy. In between each play a DJ would start blasting deafeningly loud Bangla dance music. The music would fill the stadium for 20 seconds tops and then halt as abruptly as it had started. There was one intro to a song that the crowds would go crazy for whenever it was played. I think it's the equivalent to soccer's "oleee ole ole oleeee". And at one point I noticed that I was recognizing a song, and only after a few seconds did I realize that it was the same remix of this song that was playing on repeat at a temple for durga puja.

So when the end became more close and Bangladesh started looking like it might really have a chance to pull through, the crowds were going nuts. The ice cream vendor near where we were sitting picked up his own chair and started waving it in the air above his head and screaming. This was only topped when the guards who were sitting in front of us started to do the same thing! People around us were taking off their shirts and waving them, and chants of Bangladesh! Bangladesh! Bangladesh! reached a crescendo and moved through the crowds.

After the match we all filed out into the streets. There were no CNGs in sight, so we decided to walk with the crowds until we could find one. We quickly realized that although there was no animosity towards us, many Bangladeshi cricket fans assumed that since we were clearly not Bangladeshi we must have been rooting for Zimbabwe. After we eventually found a CNG we were passed by another CNG full of Bangladeshi men yelling "LOSERS! LOSERS! LOSERS!" and pointing to us. We laughed it off, but next time I am definitely wearing green and red.