Cricketing world toasts Cup that cheers

[bongule]

[size=12pt]Even the regal full moon was compelled by the moment to peep in on Thursday night. It came up from behind the 24-storey Shilpa Bank building towering over the Bangabandhu Stadium to see what was up with Bangladesh.

But the real story was not inside the dressed-up venue of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 opening ceremony. It was outside — and all around for at least a kilometre, if not more — where lakhs and lakhs of people gathered to celebrate their nation’s biggest, most exciting moment since 1971.

It did not matter that they were unable to procure tickets for the much-publicised event. They were happy in just being there — yelling, screaming, shouting, singing, dancing or just jamming to give unprecedented human atmospherics outside to the designer show in progress inside.

Indeed, if any nation could give a run to billion-strong India’s passion for cricket, it is Bangladesh. The excitement around the World Cup is more frenzied than what one witnessed in South Africa in 2003, or even the West Indies in 2007 — both avid cricketing territories.

For many, the scheduling of the opening ceremony in Bangladesh seemed incongruous. (As incongruous as Ricky Ponting looked when he was wheeled into the stadium in an illuminated, quaint Bangladeshi rickshaw!) After all, there was a much more deserving Sri Lanka and, of course, India, in contention. But as one tried to cross the miles-long line into the stadium, one understood why ICC’s promotional activities are going in the right direction.

Bangladesh is just about arriving on the global cricketing scene and creating such an atmosphere will certainly propel the game along here.

The Thursday opener was a slow starter, kicking off with mandatory speeches by cricket-loving PM Sheikh Hasina, her ministerial colleagues, the Bangladesh Cricket Board chief and ICC head Sharad Pawar.

But soon, the pace picked up, much like an angry Shoaib Akhtar delivery, as an ambitious, audacious, unprecedented and extremely dangerous act started unfolding on a Dhakai muslin pitch hung from the Shilpa Bank building.

Dressed in clothes with LED lights, a few brave men played cricket on this hanging track. It was only after the over ended that you came to know that these men - very real and not computerised dummies - were hanging on ropes!

Sonu Nigam, the big name from Bollywood, failed to conquer with ‘Let’s Go For Glory’, his unheard of English number. It made one wonder why he opted for the English medium when the legendary Bryan Adams was there to do the honours.

“Who Adams?” asked a dancing spectator in the stands, rocking to the much-broadened form of yesteryear prima donna of Bengali music Runa Laila. Her ‘Dum A Dum Mast Kalandar’ showed no signs of ageing, even three decades after it was first heard from her.

Then she was a shapely youngster, wearing low-waist chiffon sarees, wowing the public with the exceptional bass she would lend to her signature tunes. Today, she was a vintage mascot in Bangladesh’s national assets showcase - a complete counterfoil to the youthful interpretations of India and Sri Lanka the local schoolchildren enacted in a becoming song-and-dance sequence earlier in the evening.

Returning to the “who Bryan Adams?” bit, for a huge chunk of Bangladeshis rocking to local legends - folk singer Mumtaz and pop diva Yasmin - the famous Canadian rocker’s presence may have only been incidental.

But he was the showstopper of this grand ceremony. He defied age with a booming voice so young, fresh and infectious that MS Dhoni and Shahid Afridi sitting together couldn’t but stop tapping their feet - convinced that despite “the summer of 69” Bryan Adams will and always be “18 till I die”.

Adams was the only artist allowed to bring his live band on to centre-stage and he would admit that this was the grandest canvas he sang on during his current sub-continental tour. For those who did not know him, please forgive them, but they did start loving you today!

After all, for the global arrival of a small Asian nation, Adams’ presence was a big prestige point, perhaps not as glittery as the firecrackers that lit up the skyline after Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy rocked with the official song ‘De Ghuma Ke’, but definitely as rocking and intense as the World Cup 2011 duels promise to be.

By the time the show folded up after a separate firecrackers show from behind the majestic white national mosque, the moon was high in the sky and gaping at the opulence of the moment![/size]


~"! ~"! ~"! ~"!

[The QUEEN]

F@!n *=: *=: *=:

[Maximus]

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[bongule]

[quote author=Maximus link=topic=157354.msg1872661#msg1872661 date=1298083935]
sHa_clap4 sHa_clap4 sHa_clap4 sHa_clap4 sHa_clap4
[/quote] you rock you rock

[Maximus]

[quote author=Nemo link=topic=157354.msg1872671#msg1872671 date=1298083983]
you rock you rock
[/quote][img]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii178/tejaprince/king/15.gif[/img]...nenu rockadamemiti mama... F@!n F@!n

[bing]

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[bongule]

[quote author=Maximus link=topic=157354.msg1872796#msg1872796 date=1298084684]
[img]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii178/tejaprince/king/15.gif[/img]...nenu rockadamemiti mama... F@!n F@!n
[/quote][img width=150 height=135]http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8522/hbb1notajokexi7.gif[/img] nijamgaane rockthunnav mama..ekkadao poyina thread paiki lepadam ante maatala

[Maximus]

[quote author=Nemo link=topic=157354.msg1872859#msg1872859 date=1298085073]
[img]http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8522/hbb1notajokexi7.gif[/img] nijamgaane rockthunnav mama..ekkadao poyina thread paiki lepadam ante maatala
[/quote][img width=160 height=117]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_vGgr3WUJEdg/Sj0yqGbyYZI/AAAAAAAAA6g/O5KdVZL0ubo/unaughtyam0.gif[/img]


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