Before Bangladesh had even secured Test status, cricket fans in the
country took the game seriously; when the team lost an ODI against Kenya
in March 1999, several hundred fans protested outside the offices of
the
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
[134] On learning of Bangladesh's promotion to Test status, thousands of people celebrated on the streets. Then Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina remarked that "I can't express my joy in words at this happiest hour of the nation".
[135] At the time cricket was the second-most popular sport in the country behind football.
[135] When Bangladesh began its first Test match on 10 November 2000 at
Bangabandhu National Stadium
in Dhaka, the stadium was nearly full on the first day as around
40,000 people watched the team take on India. As the match partly
overlapped with the festival of
Shab-e-Barat, numbers attending declined as the match progressed.
[136] In 2011, Bangladeshi politician
Saber Hossain Chowdhury
Supporters of the Bangladesh cricket team
opined that "In Bangladesh cricket is not simply a game, it is a symbol of national unity",
[137] and in the words of AHM Mostofa Kamal, president of the BCB in 2011, "People of [Bangladesh] take cricket religiously".
[137]
The people of Bangladesh are referred as "the most passionate cricket
fans" among the cricket world. When Bangladesh are victorious, the fans
sometimes take to the streets in celebration. When Bangladesh defeated
South Africa in the 2007 World Cup, thousands of people celebrated into
the night on the streets of Dhaka despite there being a ban on public
gatherings at the time.
[138]
Although fans are jubilant in victory, they can also be vocal in
defeat. When Bangladesh lost to England in an ODI in November 2003, the
then captain Khaled Mahmud was booed off the field.
[139]
During the 2011 World Cup, Bangladesh succumbed to a record defeat
against West Indies, registering the team's lowest score in ODIs. The
buses of both teams were stoned (Bangladesh's intentionally, West
Indies' mistakenly), as was Shakib Al Hasan's house
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