Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday praised Bangladesh cricket team for their recent rise in cricket, saying their performance mirror the “exuberance and enthusiasm” of country’s youth.
PM Modi, who is an alleged ‘ardent’ follower of cricket, choose the most popular sport of Bangladesh to woo the annoyed Bangladeshi youth while he was delivering his speech at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre. He said, “In cricket world, Bangladesh was a late entrant. But everybody is serious about the kind of challenge Bangladesh is posing for the other countries now.”
Apart from praising Bnagladesh national team’s performance in international cricket, Modi also admired Bangladeshi cricketer’s performance during the IPL season, terming it “impressive.”
The Prime Minister praised the erstwhile minnows for having “made a place for yourself” in big league of cricket. He said, “This is the power of Bangladesh” amidst loud cheers from the audience.
Modi’s accolades to Bangladesh are very significant development in the wake of forthcoming Bangladesh-India series, scheduled to be held from June 10 with Fatullah Test. Bangladesh’s recent rejuvenation in international cricket following a quarterfinal finish in the 2015 world cup Down Under has become a subject of talking among the cricket experts around the world.
Bangladesh, who were beaten by India in the controversial quarterfinal clash in the world cup, seems ready to pose a mighty challenge to India following their series against Pakistan, whom they defeated in ODI and T20 series before losing the Test series.
The quarterfinal exit from the world cup was not gone well with Bangladesh. According to the fans the match, which was stained with controversial decision from two on field umpires Aleem Dar and Richard Kettleborough, was illicitly given to India by ICC. The result of the match provoked Mustafa Kamal, former ICC President from Bangladesh to resign from the post citing “the match was fixed,” and influenced by ICC Chairman N. Srinivasan. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had also joined him by alleging that two umpires took the match away from them which later caused political tension between Bangladesh and India. It was known that BCCI headed by Presdient N. Srinivasan even decided to scraped the series until Kamal withdraw his alleged statement.
In this context when Bangladesh will take on visitor India the summer air will be hotter than ever as the riverine nation will eye for a revenge to comfort their sullen heart. Reading the boiling Bangladeshi fan’s mind Bangladesh government took a precaution measure to stop any obscene poster in the stadium, which they believed, might not go well with current friendly relation between the two South East Asian neighbours.