It’s all in a week’s work for our correspondent in the Bangladesh capital and nearby
Vishal Dikshit15-Feb-2016February 3
Sri Lanka and Pakistan play their first televised match of the World Cup. Pakistan’s talented allrounder Hasan Mohsin, Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka and several others players are on show. However, all the limelight is effortlessly taken by Sri Lanka spinner Kamindu Mendis. Right-arm or left-arm? Erm, both. The buzzing press box at the Shere Bangla Stadium comes to a halt, the TV commentators are startled, and food takes a back seat for some time in the stadium as Mendis switches from one hand to another and back.February 4
I feel at home in Dhaka now. So much dust has settled on me that I’m a part of this city. Finally get to meet my colleague Mohammad Isam after he returns to Dhaka, having covered a few matches in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar. To meet for lunch, we walk through an area called Dhanmondi, which has a lake, not-so-crowded lanes, and some peace. Isam walks me along Road 32, where the father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, used to live. The house has now been turned into a museum.February 5
Not too far from my hotel I hop over to a hair salon recommended by Isam. In broken Bengali I give the barber some instructions. When he asks some questions, I stutter in Bengali again. I somehow ask how much I’m supposed to pay, in Bengali. Just as I’m leaving, I see a message on my phone from Isam that he sent around the time I entered the salon: “People know Hindi there.”Thai soup for how many?•Vishal Dikshit/ESPNcricinfo LtdFebruary 6
I head to Fatullah, which is a good hour and a half outside Dhaka, for the quarter-final between India and Namibia. Once the one-sided match is done, a few reporters make a plan to get back to the city – a tricky expedition sometimes. Five of us stuff ourselves into a CNG that is to drop us to a CNG stand, where we need to hunt for another CNG. On the first short trip, a traffic policeman brandishes his baton, probably to say so many people aren’t allowed in one CNG. The driver slows down and pompously says: “These are foreigners from ICC,” and the policeman yields.February 7
I’m sitting in a five-star hotel, sipping a hot cappuccino with a muffin. Sweating a little bit, though the air conditioner is on. I’m going to interview a player soon but that’s not why I’m nervous. It’s because I’m not sure if the coffee bill will break my daily allowance. Just to give you an idea, a buffet at the hotel costs BDT 4000 (roughly US$50). As I’m paying, the hotel employee asks which country I play for, and before I reply, she adds: “We have 20% discount if you are a player.” The life of a journalist.February 8
Another trip to Fatullah and another set of CNGs. On the way back, in our third CNG, the driver takes a sudden U-turn right at the entrance of our hotel and nearly collides with another CNG, head to head. Instead of turning away from each other, the two drivers engage in a conversation right in the middle of the road. No greetings, no assalamaleikums. They argue about who had the right to go first.People mill about at the Dhaka Book Fair•Vishal Dikshit/ESPNcricinfo LtdFebruary 9
This trip of mine has been about several trips within a trip. The most memorable one comes when a few of us journalists are looking for a way to get back to the team hotel. A CNG stops right in front of us. “Assalamaleikum,” says the driver with a beaming smile because he recognises us from another day when he took us to the team hotel from the Shere Bangla Stadium. Being recognised by a stranger in this city of nearly 10 million people is better than being mistaken for an Under-19 player at the age of 29.February 10
For some relief from the meagre vegetarian food available in my hotel, Isam takes me to a Thai-Chinese restaurant. I think of eating something light, while he gorges on a plate of fish cakes, so I ask for Thai vegetable soup. The soup is light, no doubt, but served in such quantity that I initially think it is a family order and has been brought to the wrong table. After that we head to New Market, unarguably the most crowded place in Dhaka. Teddy bears, jewellery, baseballs caps, food, books, crockery, sports goods, you name it and they have it. I buy nothing.February 11
It is the biggest day of the U-19 World Cup for Bangladeshi fans – their team’s semi-final against West Indies. When the match starts, West Indies fast bowlers Alzarri Joseph and Chemar Holder start off by giving away nine extras in the first two overs with barely 100 spectators at the ground. Somehow, as the crowd grows in size and their cheers reverberate off the walls of the stadium, West Indies nervously inch closer to the win. For the first time I experience Bangladesh’s local crowd support – a recent phenomenon that helped them win several series at home in the last year.New Market: soft-toy central•Vishal Dikshit/ESPNcricinfo LtdFebruary 12
With Bangladesh’s loss, the crowd shifts focus to another event that has taken over the city – the Dhaka Book Fair. A walk through the Dhaka University campus to the Teachers-Student Centre, where a lot of student protests are held and, strangely, where fans of the Bangladesh cricket team go to celebrate a big series win. The book fair is full of Bengali books, but I manage to understand one word I hear all over the place – “Mashrafe”. A recent book about the captain has taken the place by storm.February 13
A day before the final, India captain Ishan Kishan is asked one question after another in English by someone from the ICC at the press conference. English is not Kishan’s first language, so he stutters a bit, and must have been relieved to have someone else finally ask him a question. It happens to be me. In front of several cameras from news channels, humongous lights beaming in his face, and microphones thrust up close, I ask him a question in Bihari, a language spoken in his home state. He breaks into a smile and replies in the same tongue.February 14
Who doesn’t like it when West Indies win? The neutral fans like it, the local journalists enjoy it, and the West Indies boys, just like their elders, show the world how to celebrate. Personally, my best moment comes at the post-match press conference where the West Indies team manager gives me a team jersey to show what the win means to him and the team.
