taken from www.yahoo.com.sg
Bangladesh has made it to the Super Eights of the Cricket World Cup
for the first time.
But there is more good news for Bangladeshi cricket fans in
Singapore.
A small park outside Mustafa Centre in Little India is an
especially hot spot for a few thousand workers, most of whom are
from Bangladesh.
They get to enjoy their favourite sport, cricket, and better still,
catch the best teams in action at the ongoing World Cup.
Although their team's match against Australia on Saturday was
delayed by rain in the West Indies, it did not dampen their
spirits.
After all, they get to catch the action on a giant screen for free,
courtesy of a businessman who runs a nearby grocery store.
"One day, first game, when I see one of the small TVs from that
coffeshop and behind that long queue jam of this Desker Road, then
myself and my wife once we come back late at night to our shop, we
found (we have) to do something for them. We are doing business, we
have to give them something," said Sirajul Islam, owner of Dhaka
Corner.
And that something turned out to be a S$7000 projector and another
S$1500 on cable subscription fees for the period of the World
Cup.
A Singapore Permanent Resident, the businessman even got the
necessary permits for the mass viewing.
And the fans reciprocated the gesture without getting too
boisterous in their support for their team - lest the public
viewing of remaining matches here gets canned for security
reasons.
Indeed, security can be an issue.
Mass viewing of the World Cup matches at a workers' dormitory were
cancelled after the first session led to security concerns.
At another dormitory - there're no such worries - as the rooms in
two blocks at Penjuru Road have been cabled up - so smaller groups
can gather.
"It is basically Indians and Bangladeshis would have signed up but
it is mostly the supervisor level because they have a bigger
financial capacity. It is they who signed up and sometimes their
fellow workers may sit and see with them," says Lakshmanan S,
Executive Director, Mini Environment Service.
The Sri Lankans in Singapore are also watching closely their team's
progress in the World Cup - but in small groups at home or
pubs.
"When we come to semi-final stage we would probably get a club or
private house or something and get a projector and get all the Sri
Lankans who want to come and watch the match to get together," says
Uresh Perera, President of the Lanka Lions Cricket Club.
But there is no denying that with India out, the cricket fever is
not as hot here as it might have been