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A reason to feel patriotic

Syed Jawad Quader
YOU may be starting your celebrations in victory or feeling sorrowful in defeat, for your team which either won or lost in the final match of T-20 World Cup 2014. But in doing so, you may be ignoring the real champions of the game.
Real patriotism does not arise on face value, as it so often tends to do in the midst of disillusionment that prevails. It is not a hollow box with a pretty packaging, as it so often appears to present itself nowadays. That box must be filled with substance in order for patriotism to be not just about the packaging. A nation must reassure its citizens of its substance in order to not just merit, but legitimately demand, patriotism. It is not a free commodity, but rather comes at a price, sacrifice and efficiency through achievements.
Sunday night presented me with an opportunity to be patriotic, to lovingly refer to the land I tread as my motherland, and to scream at the whole world in silence in celebration of our achievement. If you failed to notice properly, Bangladesh just successfully, regally and efficiently organised one of the very biggest tournaments in the game of cricket. And we did so with our houses full. Absolutely full. All tickets were sold, all seats were filled, all eyes were on the game and all courtesies were extended to the players. It was no mean feat if you consider the empty seats you saw during the last few ODI and T20 World Cups that you may have been privy enough to witness. We roared with every boundary. We groaned with every missed opportunity. Unless the game was against Bangladesh, we made no side feel any lack of support. Off the pitch, some of us halted in our commute almost every day to make way for the players and officials to commute. We saw Dhaka wear glitters. The government did everything that could possibly be done to ensure that the tournament went on smoothly. And it did. Oh yes it did. And I don't say it out of relief that was pressing to come out at the end, but say it out of pride and humility that comes out of being reassured of the confidence that I had in us that some others around the world lacked.
Spare a thought for us, Bangladesh. It will be utterly unfair to focus just on our hosting of the T20 World Cup. You are reminded that we were simultaneously hosting the women's T20 World Cup in Sylhet too, and though that was not as glitzy as the one of men's final, primarily because of its lack of audience compared to the men'sT20 World Cup, it was just as successful in every aspect. 1 have heard of people travelling to Sylhet to watch the games. The facilities were excellent and the stadium on offer was world-class. Only a week prior to the commencement of the T20 World Cup, we successfully hosted the Asia Cup, which is one of the other biggest tournaments in the international cricketing calendar. If this is not enough, we hosted the Sri Lankan team on a full blown international tour of Bangladesh just before the Asia Cup.
A handful my friends. A handful. Not many nations will be able to pull these off back-to-back, and fewer yet will agree to do so. Bold Bangladesh. Brave Bangladesh. A long salute to those who run cricket in our country today, for they jumped in cold and painstakingly convinced the cricketing world that we will be able to do it, and then topped it off by actually doing it. All for us, you and me, and all for this country and cricket the world over.
We can now host the biggest tournaments. Because we have what it takes. And we generate money. A lot of money. Enough to satisfy the pockets of the Big 3, the ICC and the rest of the cricketing world. We have a case. Not just a business case, but that too. We have made our submission before the world community with our efforts the last few months, and Sunday night, we laid a claim to such accomplishment.
In my loving eyes, the champion of the night was Bangladesh. And I felt patriotic. The writer is an Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh.