Ramin Talukder

Colombia. A country in Latin America where the aroma of coffee mingles with the acrid smell of gunpowder in every breath of air. There, football is not merely 22 players chasing a ball; it is an ancient religion, a ferocious obsession.

Few stories in football history are this dramatic, this human, this poetic.

On July 16, 1950, the skies above Rio de Janeiro carried not just the glare of the sun, but the blazing pride and golden dreams of an entire nation, Brazil. Rising beside the shores of Guanabara Bay stood the newly built concrete giant -- the Maracana Stadium. It was not merely a structure of brick and cement; it was a vast temple of hope, ambition and supremacy for nearly 200 million Brazilians.

Like the heroes of ancient Greek tragedies -- triumphant, revered, yet ultimately undone by a single moment of human weakness -- the night of July 9, 2006 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium felt like a modern retelling of a timeless drama. And at the centre of it stood one man: Zinedine Zidane, both the story’s unrivalled hero and its tragic villain.

He was not weeping. His head was not dramatically bowed. His body did not collapse. Yet around him unfolded one of football’s most poetic tragedies. At its centre stood Roberto Baggio.

Today, the FIFA World Cup is more than a sporting contest. It is emotion, identity and a global celebration that grips billions. Yet the story of its birth is one of doubt, resistance and an unyielding dream that refused to fade.

On a bright evening at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata yesterday, Scotland took the field against the West Indies to begin their campaign in the ICC T20 World Cup -- a stage that was originally meant for Bangladesh, not the Scots.

Rows of empty seats glowed under the lights, as if waiting for voices that never came. The ground, where once thousands roared at every wicket and every run, now echoed only with the wind.

These moments frame a larger picture of our sporting mindset.

Steel cuts the air like lightning slicing through clouds -- no blood, no violence.

Again and again, Cabrera’s choices seemed part of a personal experiment gone wrong.

Outside the Mirpur Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium, an unusual sight unfolded. Wrestlers were training under the open sky -- sometimes on bare soil, sometimes on paved concrete -- sweating it out while puzzled passersby watched as if the arena itself had spilled onto the streets.

A packet of snacks in one hand, a bottle of water in the other -- at the gates of Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium today ahead of Bangladesh’s first T20I against Pakistan, the scene felt less like a new change and more like the return of a beloved old memory.

If someone were wandering the streets of the USA and heard the sweet sound of a bat meeting ball, the immediate assumption might be that it’s a baseball game. However, it’s increasingly likely that this sound comes from a cricket match.

Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza revealed that it was upon Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s wishes that Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal withdrew his retirement on Friday.

The FIFA World Cup fever is raging as fans across Bangladesh are glued to their TV sets desperate to stay updated on the ins and outs of their favourite teams

Who better than Mashrafe Bin Mortaza to talk to regarding Bangladesh’s upcoming T20 World Cup journey in Oman and the UAE?

“I feel the situation will improve little by little but if you think that things should resume when situation becomes very good, by that time cricketers won’t be able to survive,” Shamsur Rahman Shuvo said while talking to The Daily Star when asked about the difficulty that the pandemic has brought.

After exactly 125 days, I entered the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur yesterday as the country’s premier cricket venue jolted back into life after the long break due to the coronavirus outbreak.

With sport completely halted and not even training camps spared following the coronavirus outbreak, Bangladesh national team cricketer