Processions on the streets, hero-worshipping on social media, and big banner headlines on national dailies – perhaps that was what the Bangladesh cricketers were expecting after securing a maiden ODI series win over Australia at home last month.

“This series win is such a big achievement, for which I think there should have been a much bigger celebration,” Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar said on June 13, during the pre-match press conference ahead of the third ODI between Bangladesh and Australia in Dhaka.

“I don’t know how much we have done, but it [the celebrations] should have been better. If we can make it 3-0, it will certainly be huge, but even winning the series should have been celebrated better,” he added.

Bangladesh sealed the three-ODI series over the Aussies with one match in hand. In both matches, the Tigers outplayed the visitors, which had a couple of notable absentees in Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh, but were nonetheless a strong unit.

Moreover, the matches were played on sporting wickets, not the typical low-and-slow tracks of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, making the victories even more remarkable.

The series triumph made headlines in the cricketing world, the fans praised the team on social media, and the country’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman sent a congratulatory message to the players and the support staff.

Still, the players, judging from Soumya’s reaction, felt the celebrations were underwhelming.

Perhaps, the players felt hard done by the timing of their triumph, as it coincided with the biggest spectacle in sports: the FIFA World Cup.

They sealed the series on June 11, the same day the 2026 World Cup raised its curtains. Bangladeshi sports lovers were simply too occupied with anticipation for the quadrennial event to bother about their cricket team’s series win over the Aussies.

As the World Cup is in full flow, Bangladesh cricket has mostly been missing from people’s social media feeds, is not getting regular coverage on TV, and is absent from the newspaper sports pages.

However, on July 1, Bangladesh cricket finally reclaimed its position on the upper fold of the sports page, and became the talk of the town – but in Harare, not Dhaka.

On June 30, Bangladesh suffered their worst-ever defeat to Zimbabwe in Tests, losing a one-off Test by an innings and 85 runs inside three days in Harare.

It was Bangladesh’s only second-ever innings defeat to Zimbabwe, the earlier one coming in both sides’ first meeting in the format way back in April 2001.

Bangladesh had virtually lost the match on the opening day after losing eight wickets for just 27 runs to get bundled out for a mere 140.

The hosts then piled on 410 to take a massive 270-run lead, and then their pacers once again ran through the Bangladesh batting line-up, bundling them out for 185.

A hammering at the hands of Zimbabwe, that too just one month before Bangladesh are scheduled to play a Test series in Australia for the first time in around 23 years, should have resulted in massive media backlash and fan outrage.

But the reaction has been mostly sedate as all the attention is still pinned on the FIFA World Cup.

In Zimbabwe, however, their defeat and Zimbabwe’s dominance did not go unnoticed.

H-metro, a leading tabloid newspaper in Zimbabwe, gave extensive coverage to the match on its July 1 edition, dedicating all four columns to the match report, which was adorned with an image of the victorious Zimbabwe team and a one-word headline in all caps: ‘BANGLADEAD!’

It’s unclear whether the Bangladesh players, who are still in Harare for the white-ball portion of the series, have seen it in print or not, but the images of it have already made their way across to Bangladesh through social media.

However, the ‘BANGLADEAD!’ headline has hardly caused an uproar in the country, as, once again, the fans are more focused on the World Cup, which has entered the knockout stages.

The Bangladesh players benefited from this lack of attention last month as well when they were whitewashed by the Aussies 3-0 in the T20I series, which followed the ODIs.

In fact, Bangladesh are yet to win a match since Soumya’s comments, as they had also lost the third ODI against Australia.

Just hours after Soumya complained of underwhelming celebrations for the series win over Australia, the Ministry of Youth and Sports had announced a Tk 2 crore bonus for the players and support staff.

Receiving a reward of this scale for winning just one series, at a time when the international cricket community is seriously questioning the point of having bilateral tours, can only happen in Bangladesh.

After getting promised a considerable financial reward for winning a series with no real stakes attached to it, escaping criticism for a clean sweep at home and even dodging public bashing for getting pummeled in Harare, Soumya and Co., hopefully, will no longer hold any grudges against the World Cup.