West Indies skittled Bangladesh out for the lowest-ever team total of 58 runs in the group stage before putting the love of Bangladeshi fans for the game in question by exaggerating an incident of stoning their team bus.
An unruly fan threw two pebbles at their team bus in a mistaken identity which took the cricket world by storm after opening batsman Chris Gayle had mentioned it in his twitter posting.
West Indies even did not spare the International Cricket Council from criticism after they had played down the incident and said it was just an emotional outburst of a fan who was hurt by the humiliating defeat of the home side.
Many Bangladeshi fans apologised for the incident by gathering at their team hotel and showing them placards. Still it took a long time for West Indies to forget the trifling matter which almost costs Bangladesh the rest of the World Cup.
Bangladesh fans were still cheering for West Indies when they faced England at the group stage. A West Indies win in the game would have propelled Bangladesh into quarter-final but they could not do them the favour.
Pakistan, their quarter-final opponents, have a general fan base in Bangladesh but the events leading into the game only made them more crowd favourite for tournament’s first knock-out game.
Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, who claimed three wickets against Bangladesh, was still expecting some support from the fans.
‘Since we have been back here we feel loved by the people,’ Sammy told in a news conference on Tuesday.
‘It’s unfortunate what happened but we put that behind us. We know Bangladesh people are loving people and they support the cricket.
‘No doubt tomorrow [Wednesday] will be an
exciting game and hopefully West Indies will come out on the victorious end,’ he said.
Sammy said their performance against Bangladesh would encourage them in the game.
‘We played here and it was a perfect demonstration of plan being executed. We will be taking confidence from that and looking to put good performance,’ he said.
His counterpart Shahid Afridi, however, said West Indies will make a big mistake if they like to treat his Pakistan they way the treated Bangladesh.
‘That was Bangladesh and this is Pakistan. The match is different. The team is different. The condition is different for us as well,’ Afridi said in a separate press conference.
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