On paper, this isn’t a rivalry to talk about. In the 32 ODIs against India, Bangladesh have won only five of them, with the last two coming only as recently as 2015, which handed them their first-ever series win over their neighbours.
Most of the clashes have been so one-sided that the results have been a foregone conclusion. But the 2007 World Cup win over India brought about a sense of rivalry in Bangladesh — though it is hard to understand why — and matches between these two sides are no more about a ‘top dog’ taking on an underdog.
In India, fans still find it funny or even irritated at times when Bangladeshi fans build up a rivalry. For the average desi, it simply doesn’t exist, because, he believes for a rivalry to exist there needs to be a competition in first place.
But one can’t do away with rivalry just on the basis of competition alone, can he? Rivalry is not only about two top teams battling it out, like McEnroe vs Borg, Federer vs Nadal, or Real Madrid vs Barcelona.
If it were only about that, then you won’t understand the Catalan derby’s importance for Espanyol and Barcelona or the Basque derby between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad. Here in Birmingham, the city is divided between Aston Villa and Birmingham City.
There are a lot of one-sided rivalries that make up for a grand spectacle for the fans. We have tuned in numerous times as Andy Roddick prepared to ace Federer but never did. It didn’t matter for Maria Sharapova fans that she hadn’t defeated Serena Williams for over 10 years despite winning Grand Slam finals against others.
Then there are the others like the Manchester derby or the North London derby in football, where City is now “on your face” to United, or Tottenham, which forever seemed to be in the shadows of Arsenal, but is now punching above weight. Despite being one-sided, these contests never lost their meaning or purpose.
So where exactly does the India vs Bangladesh rivalry stand? Indians continue to mock Bangladesh as “Toy-gers” while people on the other side of the border play the victim card.
Like City, Atletico or Tottenham, Bangladesh haven’t started beating their big brother consistently. There are miles to go, but what can’t be ignored is it is a rivalry that is developing, with every forward step that Bangladesh takes.
But Bangladesh have sometimes been mediocre as well. The harder they tried, the harder India came up against them.
Remember the 2011 World Cup? Or more recently the 2016 World T20, when Bangladesh had an opportunity to kick India out of their own tournament, and even celebrated prematurely, only for India to turn the tables? In recent years, even the media has added to it.
A Bangladeshi newspaper ran ads on Indian cricketers going home with their heads half shaven ahead of the 2016 Asia Cup, the same daily had an image of their pacer Taskin Ahmed holding Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s head and it didn’t matter when the two-time World Cup winning captain silenced them the very next day in Dhaka.
There is no doubt, Bangladesh are growing as a team. Them beating bigger teams are no longer an upset. They have grown past that stage and being ranked above Sri Lanka and Pakistan in ODIs validates it. But for a sport to grow, they need these rivalries, although the opponent might wonder what the fuss is all about.
Thursday presents Bangladesh a chance to emerge from the shadows. They have a team that can upstage any and give their fans more chances to taunt their so called bitter-rivals.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com