Dhaka crowds back after a break

This Sunday in Dhaka had a terrible hungover feel. It had been a week full of partying out in the streets, and then suddenly the home team ran into Virender Sehwag. Reality check. Suddenly the World Cup came crashing down. For the first time since landing here on Tuesday, I saw empty streets Saturday night. Such quiet so soon after such noise can be unsettling. The next morning was to be worse.

Not only for Bangladesh, but the whole World Cup. The roads remained as quiet as is possible in Dhaka. No flags on the streets, no vuvuzelas, no horns, no people on rooftops. The worst realisation dawned when you switched the TV on, and saw Kenya and Canada play, you realised there was a whole month of meaningless matches before you could get into the World Cup proper. It is in fact a tribute to the Dhaka people that they created that World Cup atmosphere, and so well that even the most cynical of analysts forgot what an ordeal awaits them in the league stages.

It was through peaceful roads on Monday morning that we made our way to the Bangladesh nets session. They looked jovial, they seemed to have moved on from the defeat in the opener. Bowlers fought with batsmen over whether the shot would have been caught by the imaginary field he had set, or whether it would have gone into the gap. However, thousands of people didn’t wait outside, like they had been doing the previous week, to catch a glimpse of their heroes when they would leave.

I asked Tamim if that adds to their disappointment of losing; that people who had created such great atmosphere for the World Cup are sitting quietly at homes, on a holiday, the International Mother Language Day, which marks the start of the Bangla language movement in East Pakistan on February 21, 1952. Tamim said, “We players need a rest after every match. Same way, the crowd needs some rest. I am sure they all will be back before the match, and they will be on song.”

As I crossed the Shere Bangla National Stadium in the evening, lo, there were thousands outside the ground again. Horns, flags, vuvuzelas were back. It was back to being a mela [carnival] again. It will take more than just one defeat to keep the Dhaka people indoors.