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Can Bangladesh be any worse? Photo showing Dhoni's severed head shameful

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Debdutta Bhattacharjee
Debdutta BhattacharjeeMar 06, 2016 | 16:06

Can Bangladesh be any worse? Photo showing Dhoni's severed head shameful

Clearly, Bangladesh can't handle success, and I daresay, is better off being the "bachcha" of world cricket.

At least that way, the Bangladeshis would meekly accept defeat, as they have been doing for so long, and not sully the wonderful game of cricket, and embarrass themselves, like they did with their latest lampooning of the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

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The photoshopped image which has gone viral on social media shows Bangladeshi pacer Taskin Ahmad holding up Dhoni's severed head while letting out a mighty battle cry.

The Bangladeshi team, fondly nicknamed the "Tigers", has had some memorable victories in recent times, some of them perhaps too big for its supporters to deal with. The team had beaten England in the World Cup last year and advanced to the quarter-finals. It had beaten the Indians in a ODI series at home, and now, has reached the final of the Asia Cup T20, having beaten Sri Lanka and Pakistan on the way.

It looks like, for the Bangladeshi fans, who have not been accustomed to major success at the world stage, the spate of recent victories has gone to their head. It's akin to what you would feel if you suddenly find yourself awash with all the riches of the world.

The bad blood against India perhaps started with the "Mauka Mauka" ad that was launched on a frontline TV channel during World Cup 2015, that poked fun at India's opponents, especially Pakistan. The ad was quite innocuous, frankly speaking.

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The ill-feeling intensified when Bangladesh faced India in the World Cup quarter-final. The energy was high and the tension was threatening to boil over. The Bangladeshis, who had had to bear the brunt of Virat Kohli's bat and tongue before had clearly singled him out for "special" treatment.

It was a big opportunity for the Bangladeshis. If they could beat India and reach the semi-finals of the biggest event in cricket, they would show the world that they were no minnow that could be ignored at will. But they could not, and as luck would have it, had a major decision going against them in that match, when India's star batsman Rohit Sharma was given not out by the umpires

Television replays showed that the umpires got it wrong and Rohit, who was batting on 90 at that time, went on to score 130-odd.

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The Bangladeshis, who had stars in their eyes, found their dreams rudely broken when they could not chase down the 300-plus target set by India, losing pretty heavily in the end. Bangladesh saw in a normal umpiring error a dark conspiracy and the then ICC president Mustafa Kamal, who was from Bangladesh, said the result was pre-arranged. The prime minister Sheikh Hasina also got involved and condemned the umpiring decision.

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Bangladesh saw the Rohit Sharma decision to be the only reason for its loss to India, conveniently forgetting that Rohit was already batting ten shy of a century and India was already in a very strong position. Also a team which claims to be good enough to have played the World Cup semi-final shouldn't have worried too much with one wrong decision. There was still a lot of cricket to be played in that match, which Bangladesh couldn't do too well, going down by 109 runs.

Instead of accepting its own inabilities, the Bangladeshis went on an all-out attack on India. Were they oblivious of the help that they have always got from India, politically, economically and even in the field of cricket? In fact, Bangladesh wouldn't have got Test status as early as it did had it not been for the late ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya, and did the Bangladeshis forget that it was India who was the first team to go on tour for the first Test in Bangladesh's history?

Videos uploaded on social media platforms by Bangladeshi fans in reaction to the Mauka Mauka ad questioned Indians' virility, while showering them with expletives. What the Bangladeshis did with those lowly, despicable videos was shame themselves. It betrayed a lack of sophistication, with which even satire must be carried out. At no stage can so-called satire be allowed to stoop to the level of personal attacks. The Mauka Mauka ad did not attract such a sharp reaction even from Pakistan against whom it was chiefly targeted.

Then came the ODI series in Bangladesh, which Dhoni's boys lost. True, the Bangladeshis were affronted by Dhoni brusquely pushing aside Mustafizur Rahman in a mid-pitch collision, but didn't anybody see how the Bangladeshi bowler was repeatedly getting in the way of the Indian batsmen? It couldn't have been clearer that Mustafizur was planning, may be as part of team strategy, to obstruct the Indian batsmen, and run them out.

The Bangladeshis may also have been annoyed by another TV ad which portrayed their team as the "bachcha" (minnow) of world cricket. What the rabid Bangladeshi fans chose not to see was that the same ad also celebrated that rise of Bangladesh from a minnow to a force to reckon with. Can the Bangladeshi fans run away from the reality that their team indeed was a minnow?

The Bangladeshis replied with an objectionable poster where Mustafizur appeared with a cutter, and seven top Indian players, including Dhoni and Kohli, shown with half of their heads shaved. Another ad claimed, even before the series started, that the Indian team would be "bambooed".

Then there was a cowardly attack on Indian super fan Sudhir Gautam.

But the latest graphic featuring Taskin and Dhoni's severed head just crosses the unspoken red line of courtesy that rivals have. It takes considerable calibre to conduct a rivalry with dignity, but it is clearly not a quality that the Bangladeshis have. Cricket, has long shed the clothing of being a "gentleman's game", but the Bangladeshis have taken the abominable "art" of hitting below the belt to a whole new level.

Can we Indians, then be blamed if we now start judging the national character of Bangladesh negatively? It is not as if Bangladesh, as a rival, matters too much for India. India is still head and shoulders above the Bangladeshis, and this is true not just in the case of cricket. It is, however, evident from this nuisance that the Bangladeshi fans engage in from time to time, that Bangladesh, underneath all the jingoism, is still jealous and afraid of India, and there is a soft underbelly beneath the mischievous exterior.

The great Rabindranath Tagore had composed Bangladesh's national anthem, in which he said, "Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomaye Bhalobashi" (My golden Bangla, I love you). Bangladesh, please don't tarnish Tagore's name, at least, with your actions. Otherwise, you will always remain the immature "bachcha" of the cricket world.

Last updated: March 12, 2016 | 15:11
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