Agencies
NEW DELHI, June 30
After Bangladesh recently scored a historic 2-1 ODI series win against India at home, a section of the local media is seemingly having some fun at the cost of MS Dhoni’s team. An advertisement in a leading Bangladesh daily – Prothom Alo — shows top Indian players, including MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, with their head half shaven and under the towering presence of Mustafizur Rahman, the rookie pacer who single-handedly wrecked Indian batting.
The caricature, advertising stationery goods, shows Mustafizur with a cutter, the delivery that fetched him a record 13 wickets. The photo-shopped image has been published in the paper’s humour magazine section – Rosh Alo – on June 29. But the advertisement, mocking India’s abject failure, failed to evoke the response it probably desired as several local fans criticized the post in the paper’s Facebook edition, calling it “unceremonious” and “betraying Bangladeshi culture”.
Bangladesh fans were cock-a-hoop when teenaged pacer Mustifizur knocked out top Indian batsmen in the first two ODIs on June 18 and June 21. Although India won a consolation match in the third game on June 24, Bangladesh credited themselves with some fine all-round performance.
During the series, a section of the fans harassed well-known Indian fan Sudhir Chaudhary in Dhaka. The colourful Sachin Tendulkar fan had to be given extra security to save himself from overzealous Bangladesh supporters.
But the advertisement in a respected Bengali daily on Monday morning has not gone down well with several Bangladesh fans.
Animesh Roy asked the paper’s editors on Facebook: “Will Bangladesh be able to take the pressure after this (caricature)? Will you do the same when our team loses?”
Another reader, Akram Hossain Rumye, wrote: “Dear Editor, this is in poor taste. You have shamed 16 crore Bangladeshis. Is mocking India part of our culture?”
Raznan Ahmed wrote: “Mustifizur is looking like a barber with the cutter in his hand.”
India and Bangladesh are not scheduled to play anytime soon, but given young Team India’s aggressive nature, this half-bald advertisement may see some hair-raising encounters in future.
