Bye bye Bangladesh

By Phil Long Our man with the Barmy Army in Bangladesh

It was a case of all change in Dhaka as the tour of Bangladesh came to a victorious end.

And whilst the results on the pitch may have been similar, off the pitch Dhaka felt like a completely different place to the city I initially encountered.

Countless food vendors were still camped on the streets but instead of tucking into the grub on offer the punters were carefully parcelling it for later in the day.

It is, of course, Ramadan.

Down in Chittagong, play ended well before the call for iftar (the daily breaking of the fast at sunset) emanated from the local mosques each day.

It makes Blackpool Illuminations look like a couple of 40 watt bulbs on a piece of string Phil Long

But for the day-night cricket in Dhaka, that completely changed.

With a 1.30pm start, the iftar timing of 5.20pm coincided with the innings break.

Just after five the huge crowd, which had to stomach seeing Bangladesh fail to reach 200 during both games here, began to make preparations for the feast.

Food boxes miraculously appeared, dozens of previously dozing food vendors sparked into frenzied activity and the samosa salesmen and hard-boiled egg boys threw their wares into the crowd in return for five taka notes.

During the break in the second one-dayer I snuck away to buy a newspaper and when I returned to the stands five minutes later, the silence was almost total as the local supporters munched their way through their long awaited grub.

With Freddie Flintoff ensuring that both of England victories here arrived in a hurry, the Dhaka crowd have a unique way of letting the casual observer know how many the opposition need to win.

With about 75 runs needed the empty water bottles which had refreshed the fans a couple of hours earlier were thrown at each other until around 50 runs are required.

At that point both parties turned their attention to hurling hundreds of bottles onto the outfield.

Painting for the scoreboard before the Chittagong match

That's all quite good fun, but with about 25 runs required the empty food boxes and the day's newspapers are then set alight.

Bearing in mind that the roofing above our heads is made from cloth it is not very amusing if you're in the middle of it.

But with less than 10 runs to go, the fires were extinguished and the locals hooted their derision at home captain Khaled Mahmood one final time before heading for the exit and the city streets.

And outside, there's a sparkling reminder that the Eid holiday is just around the corner as the previously darkened shop buildings are now swathed in a myriad of flashing lights to entice the evening shoppers.

It's a such a stunning and widespread display that it makes Blackpool Illuminations look like a couple of 40 watt bulbs on a piece of string.

Blackpool? Now, I wonder if that's what made Freddie seem so at home?