A Uniquely Bangladeshi Story

I've lived and worked in more than half a dozen countries over the years and each has its own little foibles without which there wouldn't be much to talk about in he pub after a long shift.

Bangladesh it must be said has more than its fair share of foibles. Luckily for me, when I was living there, most of them occurred outside of the bubble I existed in at the time but one foible did impact the whole country and that was the dreaded hartal. Suffice to say nothing opened and nothing moved during hartal hours when political thugs would roam the streets and physically attack anyone breaking the hartal whether it be working, opening their business or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I never watched the Bangladesh football, never knew anything about it then but this story from last weekend tickled me, especially this bit:

Bangladesh Football Federation shifted yesterday's scheduled Bangladesh League fixture between Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club and Sheikh Russel KC to today due to failure of the floodlight at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

The crucial match of the league was initially scheduled for a 4:15pm start but the football's governing body deferred it to 8:00pm for the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the opposition. However, the floodlights failed to work, postponing the match for the day.