Cheeky dig!

Bangladesh’s post-match celebrations — ‘Nagin dance’ — after beating Sri Lanka to reach the finals (in the recently concluded T-20 tri series) had seemingly left the hosts aggrieved.

In a ‘giving a taste of their own celebrations’ gesture, after India won the finals, the crowd was seen imitating and mocking the ‘nagin dance’ celebration to taunt the Bangladesh team leaving them embarrassed. The meme-makers and trolls are having a great time mocking it.

Former Indian captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar too broke in to an impromptu dance - the Nagin Dance - when India was cruising along in the match. While Gavaskar’s dance seemed to be in good humour, his gesture did not go do well with netizens as many slammed him on the social media.
However, sports writer and columnist Ayaz Memon comes in defense of Gavaskar.

“It’s like celebrating the opposition way, just to tease them. Gavaskar did it just for fun because his fellow commentators Bret Lee and Aamir Sohail asked for it. West Indian cricketers used to do Gangnam style dance.  So these things do happen and this is not mocking, but ‘tit for tat’,” explains Ayaz.

But why did Bangladesh team perform did Nagin dance?
When Sri Lanka toured Bangladesh earlier this year, in their first T20I match, Nazmul Islam celebrated Sri Lankan batsman Upul Tharanga’s wicket by breaking into the ‘snake dance’ celebration. He was soon joined by Mushfiqur Rahim.

But on Friday, when Mushfiqur was dismissed, as a return gesture Sri Lanka bowler Amila Aponso mocked him back by playing the imaginary flute (instrument played by snake charmers.)

However, this isn’t the first time ‘mocking drama’ was seen while in a match. In the past, Pakistan cricketer Javid Miandad celebrated by doing the monkey jump to imitate Kiran More (when the former could not tolerate incessant appeals by the Indian wicketkeeper) in the 1992 World Cup.

And who can forget Saurav Ganguly’s return compliment, taking his shirt off at the Lord’s in celebration to India’s victory over England (2002) in reply to Andrew Flintoff’s chest-baring celebration at Wankhede Stadium earlier that year.
Former Indian cricketer Arshad Ayub admits that sometimes players and the crowd do get carried away.

“Normally cricketers and crowd do not mock the opposition while celebrating, but sometimes they get excited. I don’t think mocking celebrations existed during our times, but it’s ok if you mock in a lighter vein,” says Arshad.

There are several such ‘mocking’ instances in the past including last year’s (2017) India vs Australia Test series. The Virat Kohli hit back at Australia for their alleged mockery of his shoulder injury. In his return gesticulation, the Indian skipper celebrated the dismissal of David Warner by touching his shoulder ‘pretending to be in pain.’

Playing for the country is a matter of national pride, and it is only natural that players fierily compete, and at times get emotional in the process of celebrating.  Now that leads us to the question, is mocking within the spirit of the ‘gentleman’s game’?  

Spinner Harbhajan Singh, who came up with his own unique way to troll Bangladesh by introducing ‘Bichuu dance’, says that it’s all about instincts.
“You don’t plan these celebrations; they just happen impromptu. After getting a wicket or winning you feel like doing something, and everyone does it in their own way,” says Harbhajan Singh.