World Cup fever

And I am glad to say that Bangladesh is no exception. For a country that has no direct connection to the World Cup, the quadrennial event is surprisingly important in Bangladesh.

We have never come close to qualifying for the tournament and I do not anticipate that this is likely to change much within my life-time (though you never know), but be that as it may, there are few countries around the world where World Cup fever is as pronounced as it is in Bangladesh, and there is no question that we take our football as seriously as anyone.

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Once upon a time, football was the premier game in Bangladesh before (to my chagrin) it was supplanted by cricket in the last ten or fifteen years. As a football enthusiast, I have never been altogether happy with this change, though I suppose that I can concede the benefits to our national psyche.

After all, as poorly as we mostly perform on the international stage, there is no question that on our day the Bangladesh cricket team is a match for anyone in the world, with one-day victories against Australia and India and close scares for Australia and Pakistan in test matches as testimony to this.

Being perfectly honest, we are a lot closer to the pinnacle (though, it must be admitted, not too close) when it comes to cricket than football, and we even have our own budding cricket superstars such as Mohammad Ashraful and Masrafe Mortaza.

But let us not overlook football, for so many years the mainstay of Bangladeshi sports. We have been South Asian champions, and despite recent reverses, I maintain we are the finest team in the sub-continent.

I can remember amazing talents from my youth, Salauddin and Kaisar Hamid and Sheikh Mohammad Aslam and Jewel Rana, and even today I am firmly of the belief that Arif Hossain Joy is much under-rated and certainly good enough to hold his own on the international stage.

And football is a truly democratic sport, which has always been its enduring appeal in Bangladesh. Cricket, with its expensive equipment and complicated technique, is much harder for young kids without means or money to gain a mastery of. Cricketers have to be trained, footballers are born.

The World Cup, for one brief month every four years, at least rebalances the scales and puts football in its rightful place at the top of the national consciousness.

Don't get me wrong. Cricket is a'ight and no doubt has its charms and attractions. But there is no way that such an effete game, the pastime of the leisured classes, can or should compare to football, which, not so very long ago, used to be the national passion.

In terms of where it puts us on the world stage, I wonder whether substituting cricket for football is a step forward or a step back. Football is, after all, the global game, and one that is only increasing in popularity world-wide. Cricket, on the other hand, let's face it, is a sport that is confined to the Commonwealth ghetto and is played by only a handful of countries.

Personally, I don't think there is anything much behind our recent tilt towards cricket and away from football other than the fact that we are a little better at the former. But looking at it from a global perspective, it seems to me that focusing on football rather than cricket would help us relate to the entire world and help us out of our provincial South Asian mind-set.

Which brings me back to the World Cup. This is the one time, every four years, that the country's attention turns to football and enthusiasm for football takes centre stage. For one month, Bangladesh, like every other country in the world, comes to a stand-still. I tend to predict that not too much of consequence is likely to occur on the political front as long as the World Cup is in progress. However, the political parties know better.

Or not.

The World Cup does put significant additional pressure on the government to provide a stable supply of electricity so that people are able to watch their favourite teams. Every four years there are reports of protests in some far-flung village where the electricity supply has proven inadequate, and in 1994 there were even demonstrations to protest the expulsion of Argentinian superstar Diego Maradona from the tournament. We take our World Cup seriously in Bangladesh.

Electricity has been a big problem for the current administration. We have seen protests in Kansat that have left 20 dead, and this was not an isolated incident by any means. Lately, we have also seen unrest in the garment industry and there is no question that there is a feeling of dissatisfaction in the air.

If you want my opinion, the government will face its first acid test right here, right now. If it is unable to provide a decent power supply, so that people are able to watch the World Cup without hindrance, then perhaps we won't have to wait until October for the care-taker government or January for elections.

You heard it here first.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.