Fortunes of the Eagles and Tigers in the T20 World Cup

By K.R. Nayar

Abu Dhabi. Bangladesh's performance so far in the World Cup has been disappointing for their fans. A few Pakistan fans were quick to point out that the Bangladesh team, popularly known as Tigers, are a toothless Tiger this time.  

This story was published in The Telegraph, India 

A Bangladesh fan Rashed Chowdhury, who lives in Dubai, purchased his ticket online and drove all the way to Abu Dhabi to watch his team play. There are many Bangladeshi expatriates in the UAE but not many of them play in domestic cricket here. However, they do turn up in large numbers to cheer their team in international matches, and also talk authoritatively about the game. There have been many attempts to organize tournaments between Pakistan expatriates and Bangladesh expatriates, but they have not been successful. Pakistan have many of their former first class cricketers playing here but there are virtually no top cricketers from Bangladesh here. It was only when the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament had a team for Bangladeshis called Bengal Tigers that their fans had a team to support in the franchise league. 

England Lions and Jason Roy

Since there was this talk about the Bangladesh team being called 'Tigers', a few fans wanted to know if the England team were called the 'Lions'. England’s second team is called 'England Lions' and they regularly play in the UAE during the off season. It was Australians who gave the England cricket team the nickname 'Poms' because the English immigrants to Australia had rosy cheeks like pomegranate, and thus got called 'poms' for short. Jason Roy, the star performer with the bat against Bangladesh, had played for the England Lions here. He has played in the Pakistan League when it was held here and is also part of the Abu Dhabi T10 League.


England’s spin coach with Indian roots

England's spin attack is looking stronger due to plans worked out by a former New Zealand off spinner Jeetan Patel.  Patel is their spin bowling coach and has worked out plans with the experienced spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. They have also roped in Liam Livingstone who bowls leg breaks as well as off breaks. Though Rashid is addressed as Rash, he is a calm and a level headed cricketer. Patel has roots from India since his parents are from Gujarat. He made his mark playing in England for Buckingham Town Cricket Club in 2004 before moving to New Zealand.

Namibia known as 'Eagles' scoops win

Namibia has a pavilion in the ongoing Expo 2020 in the UAE. So Namibia Expo2020 tweeted ‘Super12, here we come’. They also called the team as Eagles. Very few knew that the team had the nickname Eagles. Many believe that Scotland were unable to put up a fight against Namibia since they had little time to recover from the thrashing by Afghanistan. A fan who wanted Namibia to win said that Scotland was wounded and hurt.  Ruben Trumpelmann, who became only fourth bowler in T20 cricket to take three wickets in the first over of an innings after Shoaib Akhtar, Fidel Edwards and Yasir Arafat, has a special connection with the UAE.  He made his T20 International debut from the ICC Cricket Ground in Dubai on October 5, 2021 against the UAE. Trumpelmann was born in South Africa but became eligible to play for Namibia since his father was born in Windhoek, Namibia.   


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