Livid Bangladesh fans are blaming their prime minister for drawing world attention to the burgeoning militancy in their backyard after Cricket Australia (CA) scrapped a scheduled tour to their country over security concerns this week.
Among several other theories, fans have also cited the ongoing tour by their women’s team to Pakistan as a trigger point, saying it was taking place against the wishes of the Australians, angering them.
But after initial taunts against the Baggy Greens Bangla fans called them cowards afraid to face a side that beat Pakistan, India and South Africa recently at home mass ire has turned to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina invited severe criticism for asking her British counterpart to check the rise of UK jihadists, who she says are fomenting extremism in Bangladesh.
Many Bangladesh cricket fans believe their premier made the Australians uneasy by talk of rising militancy in their country.
Ironically, while Bangladesh has not taken kindly to the Australian pullout, it itself had debated their women team’s departure for Karachi to play two T20 and two ODI matches.
In fact, the BCB gave the green signal only after receiving a positive report from its fact-finding team that checked out the safety arrangements in the host nation.
In a pre-tour report, Prothom Alo referred to Pakistan as a country where people “were killed regularly” in terrorist attacks, and talked of its isolation in world cricket following the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team.
But it also noted this seclusion had partially ended with the Zimbabwean team’s visit this May.
According to Prothom Alo, some of their players even had to get “clearance” from their families to travel to Pakistan.
“We had to convince our parents,” it quoted Bangadeshi skipper Salma Khatun as saying.
But she dismissed safety concerns in Pakistan.
“Every country has such issues. don’t we have them here in Bangladesh?” she said at a press conference before the team’s departure.