Once the sun has set,dinner becomes the focal point of interest to the visitors here from Bangladesh. With mostly English food around, the national cricketers, who prefer the spicy South Asian food variety, were found using their contacts to find suitable alternatives.
Without much of effort the Tigers along with others have managed to locate an Indian restaurant just across the road from the hotel. The owner of the hotel, a Gujarati-Muslim, makes sure that his guests are comfortable and it usually ends up with him taking the order, which he doesn’t have enlisted in the menu card. The other day a few among the Bangladeshis were found teaching him how to make ‘AluBharta’ – mash potato ‘bangla’ style.
Travelling around the world, the Bangladesh team has always been welcomed by local Muslim communities. The frequent travels to these locations in all these years have helped foster good relationships between the local Muslim communities and the cricketers. In Harare it is the Universal (Muslim) Sports Club that the Tigers are fond of frequenting. The atmosphere there is always welcoming while the South-Asian and Middle–Eastern fast food adds the icing on the cake.
Football/soccer has always been the favorite sport of the African nation. Though Zimbabwe once had the pride of being competitive in cricket, the social barriers between the native African community and the European settlers had pushed the former towards football.
The fervor for football here developed over time which was demonstrated on a Sunday afternoon, when the 35,000 capacity stadium here in Harare wassold out for the local derby game between the Dynamos and Highlanders.
