Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world. The sport enjoys a fan following of 2.5 billion people worldwide. And it is a result of a lot of nations who have played the game. Out of these nations, only a few are ICC full members, whereas majority of the nations are associates. Usually the nation is considered as a ICC full member or test playing nation after they have done something significant in the game. Whereas the associates are the ones who usually do not perform that well. However, there is one full member nation, which has never played up to the mark and is still struggling against the newer teams. The team is Bangladesh national cricket team.

Bangladesh have been the longest surviving underdogs of international cricket. Since the inception of the game, no other team has struggled so much to play quality cricket to the extent at which the Bangla team has. Initially entering the international circuit in 1977 as an associate nation, they played their first international match against Pakistan in 1986. And in 1997, they finally became a member nation of ICC, after winning ICC trophy the same year. It's been 26 years for them being a full member nation. Teams like Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland have made their mark after becoming a member nation very lately, and yet Bangladesh is still underperforming.

It's staggering to know that an Indian subcontinent team still struggles so much. Once a part of India before 1947 and Pakistan before 1971, the team didn't inherit any cricketing genes from their forefathers and now become the talk of the town for all the wrong cricketing reasons. One might wonder on why and how did the same happen. But if one closely follows the politics in their nation, one can understand the difference. On a lot of occasions the team is not getting the best combination of players who could've potentially represented the nation. Petty issues made bigger and blown out of proportion, and critical issues left unresolved led the situation to reach to this level.

Another major issue is the unwavering and toxic support of their fans. While the Bangladesh fans display tremendous loyalty towards their team and nation, at times it goes way too much. A result of which they put extreme pressure on their own players. And their love towards their team turns into infatuation, which becomes toxicity for opponents. Which is why the team never gets the respect from the opposition teams. Also their fandom has crossed leaps and bounds to the extent where instead of accepting their flaws and criticizing their players for their failures, the fans go berserk at the other teams stating some of the most stupid reasons. With the fans defending even the worst behaviour, encourages their team players to continue the same.

The childish and immature celebration like the Naagin Dance and animated reactions from the players are a testament to this fact. The uncritical behaviour of the fans have led the team members to consider themselves beyond the game. Which is why, there are occasions when two or more of their players have heavy ego clashes between themselves and stand in front of each other, when the team actually requires them to stand together for the team. Due to the same reason one sees their star and experienced player Shakib Al Hasan mess with the umpires, or Mushfiqur Rahim almost slap his team member.

The celebrity culture has affected the players to the extent where they've become excessively over confident. And the same over confidence brutally reflects in their falsely sense of accomplishment. Mushfiqur Rahim celebrating wildly even before the match against Indian in 2016 T20 World cup backfired him and his team badly. Which is why Shakib who himself said that preparation against Zimbabwe can not be apt one for World Cup didn't utter a single word after losing the series against USA. The team members react to a single one odd victory like they've won the world cup, thereby giving a further glimpse of how shallow their reality of cricket is. If only Bangladesh fans could ever learn from anyone, it should be their own former players.

One never saw Mohammad Ashraful celebrating wildly, after scoring a century and defeating the giants Australia. One never saw Mashrafe Mortaza ever have animated discussion with umpires or team members. The result of all these was the constant improvement in the team and it's graph going upwards. Therefore one saw Bangladesh defeat a team like India in the world cup, or emerge victorious against Australia while chasing a good total. The onwards and upwards trend also saw Bangladesh win a great test series again New Zealand in their own backyard. But sadly now they only see their team getting defeated by associate nations like United States of America, which is a much younger team. And it needs to change.

Only time will tell whether it will or won't change from the board, but the fans can have a major role to play in the same. Instead of extreme fanaticism for their team, if they retort to the means like what most teams do, they can be successful. The nation, which once loved football more than cricket can show the cricketers that they can still do the same. And once that change is visible to players, they'll work hard on improving their skills rather than being involved in petty politics and playing the blame game. Also, the fans need to criticize their players when it is necessary. And only when this change happens, the mindset of their players and board will change. They will start to take cricket more seriously. If not, then Bangladesh cricket will never improve, and they will be forever remembered as the longest playing underdogs of world cricket.