T20 Cricket World Cup

What’s the news in Bangladesh this spring?

CRICKET!!!!!

Bangladesh is hosting the 2014 T20 Cricket World Cup, and they couldn’t be more excited. It’s the second international sports tournament held here this year and the fact that the International Cricket Board allowed the country to host two major events after the political turmoil the country witnessed last year is a really big deal. Dhaka has been spiffed up to accommodate tourists and reporters.

Don’t ask me to explain the actual game yet. I am a naturalized American, and it was not cool for me to even understand baseball, let alone cricket. But I am making a conscious effort now, as I do want to understand the Bengali soul. And you can't truly understand Bangladesh unless at least you attempt to understand cricket.

Cricket is a source of national pride. Well, not so much these days, as the Tigers (that's the nickname for the national team) are not doing that great. Cricket could also be a source of national madness. If you have a blackout during a game, you could have a riot on your hand. It did happened during the Football World Cup Soccer when fans rioted after power cuts interrupted viewing. They stormed local power offices and attacked state electricity officials after the power supply went off during matches.

So, as a lesson learned, the government doesn’t want their citizens to miss out on a second of the cricket action. So, during the last World Cup Bangladesh co-hosted, they shut down the manufacturing sector on game nights so the reduction in power usage by factories enabled all the TVs in Dhaka to keep working.