Shahid Afridi's bowling unites Pakistan and Bangladesh in cricket

Bangladesh has plenty of reasons to resent its neighbour but a stunning performance by the bowler allowed the two countries to forget their differences, past and present


Shahid Afridi celebrates a wicket against West Indies in Pakistan's World Cup quarter-final, won by 10 wickets. Photograph: Graham Crouch/Getty Images

On Tuesday the Economist Intelligence Unit announced that Dhaka is the second worst city in the world to live in, behind Harare. The residents here woke up to front-page litanies of all the things that the EIU said were wrong with their city: power cuts, gas supply problems, a lack of green spaces, a malfunctioning public transport system, extreme vandalism, dirty roads, noxious sewers, polluted rivers, high unemployment and suffocating overpopulation. That is a hell of thing to read as you start your day.

If all these issues were weighing heavy on the 25,000 people in the Sher Bangla, they were not showing it. This match was as much of an anti-climax as a World Cup quarter-final could be but every single one of the113 runs scored by Pakistan raised roars that rang out into the floodlit sky and around the innumerable half-built towers that encircle the ground.

Construction had stopped for the day on these concrete and steel skeletons, the workers taking up spots in the shade where they could peer down at the cricket. All around, every vantage point seemed to be taken. One lady was standing on a chimney seven stories up, perched like a bird while she shielded her eyes from the ferocious heat of the sun.

Down at street level little games of cricket broke out as the children came home from school. In the three matches going on in the alleyway on the far side of the lush green practice ground, which was a muddy goat patch as recently as last year, play stopped intermittently to allow cars and carts to pass through the middle of the pitch.

It is easy to imagine them looking up at the walls of the Sher Bangla, listening to the raucous crowd and dreaming of one day walking out on to the turf themselves. This is one of the great new stadiums of the sub-continent and should be a source of pride and inspiration to cricket fans across the country. Bangladesh's results may have disappointed but in the long term the stimulus provided by the World Cup is going to be huge.

It took time for the ground to fill and at first the fans loitered in the shadows. No one was sure whether or not the locals would come out to cheer Pakistan. They have plenty of reason to resent their neighbours.

It was only 40 years ago that some of the worst atrocities in modern history were committed in the Liberation War that led to the separation of East Pakistan from West. Anywhere else in the world history like that would surely be enough to ensure hatred and loathing but here more complicated emotions were at work.

By the midway point of the first innings the stands were a seething, writhing mass of happy Bangladeshis. "It is because they want revenge for their defeat by the West Indies," one fan said. "It is because for so long we had no cricket team to support that we got used to supporting them" was another's theory. "We are friends," said Waqar Younis. "We share a lot of stuff and we have a lot of goodwill for each other."

Home-made placards popped up like mushrooms, all of them more sincere than the witty and sarcastic signs you tend to see in India. "We miss our Bangladesh" was one, "Don't worry West Indies we are your friends" read another. Most, though, simply said "Boom Boom".

Shahid Afridi has taken 21 wickets now. He has come closer to grabbing the tournament by the scruff of the neck than any other player. For a man who bats so stupidly, he is a wonderfully intelligent bowler. His speed varies like a rickshaw caught in traffic. His fastest delivery was 63mph, his slowest 48mph. But these are not distinct gears, he touched almost every mark between the two. Then there is the top-spin, which can make two balls land in the same place but bounce at wildly different angles.

The googly did for Ravi Rampaul, the faster, flatter delivery for Kieron Pollard and Devon Thomas, and the wide-of-crease leg-break got Ramnaresh Sarwan. Facing Afridi is an exercise in applied geometry. Seeing Pollard prod and poke at him was like watching Lennie, in Of Mice and Men, trying not to crush the puppy. For all his power he has no control and you knew it was only a matter of time before he did the wrong thing.

Together with Younis Afridi seems to have united his team, given them common purpose and direction. Given the divisions and distractions they have endured in the past 18 months, it is an astonishing achievement. Both men have been playing down Pakistan's chances, saying that by reaching the semi-final they have fulfilled the target they set themselves, but they have now beaten West Indies, Australia and Sri Lanka. Much as they claim otherwise, they should not start as underdogs against any team left in the tournament.

And what a contrast with West Indies, a team who are every bit as richly skilled but utterly unable to escape their tribulations. Ottis Gibson, a well-liked and well-respected coach, has been a bitter and angry man after matches. There seem to be deep rifts in their team and Gibson came close to lifting the lid: "This is not criticism, it is fact. The senior players have not performed. When the going got tough, we didn't stand up to it."

He will stand by his captain, Darren Sammy, but has made it abundantly clear that when West Indies next take the field, against Pakistan on 23 April, there will be no room for some of his senior players.

"For the last 10 years West Indies cricket has been pretty much the same and it has been the same players," he said. "This tournament has seen the emergence of quite a few good young players and those are the players we will base our future on."

Gibson has given debuts to three good young cricketers in the past four matches. He sees them, along with the Bravo brothers, Darren and Dwayne, and Kemar Roach, as the nucleus of his future side. But the risk is that those young players will become infected by the attitudes of some of their elders and that the scars of the past decade will spread. He says he has tough decisions to make about the senior players in his team, whom he accused of lacking "hunger and desire". Pakistan do not seem to lack either quality.

For Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies this World Cup has been, in three very different ways, a watershed. But while two neighbours will feel quite confident about what lies on the other side, West Indies must feel only frustration and perhaps even trepidation as they look forward.