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These are times to build up your own defences.

The Bangladesh cricketers have been transformed from 38 degrees to one below freezing. We are all rubbing our palms, not to fight off the bitter English cold in sympathetic response, but more in preparation to cheer if our team does well, or to hit out if they sink our ijjat. Yes! we are ready to rejoice on their success and all set to denounce them if they lose. We have never been in such a comfortable position before. In fact, no World Cup-playing team is.

The best thing is that we all have our little side bets going along the way.

Let us start from the players.

The batsmen would consider their WC venture successful if they can avoid a goose egg, perhaps reach the double figures on a couple of occasions, hit a World-class bowler for a four, a six would be something to talk about to their grandchildren.

A bowler's day would be made if he could claim the wicket of anyone within the top ten of the CEAT ranking. And, as long as there is cricket, our bowler's will have the added advantage of being able to blame the fielders for dropping catches, in which the latter inevitably oblige.

The coach? Well, I have not seen a more muted West Indian in my life. The last time I saw him was at the Emirates 'bon voyage' reception at the Sonargaon Hotel. A Bangalee journalist greeted him with all 32 as they crossed each other. The poor 'upset-for-whatever-reason' soul passed by like a robot. I have never been to the Caribbean but from what I have heard, such cold demeanour is unthinkable in the 'paradise on earth'. If his batting was tinged with the pigments of the bright Caribbean summer, his stint as a coach has rarely been above black-and-white. He has the English weather and our lack of talent (by his own admission) to fall back on when we do badly. For our successes, well, he can always put his head out and say, ``I was the coach for the past two years.''

The manager is in the most precarious position. Well, most managers are, but ours for a very different reason. He might start mumbling a silent prayer every time it appears that Bangladesh was about to beat Scotland, or for that matter, anyone else. In fact, he has all his defences packed for a wholesale routing of the Bangladesh team at the World Cup. What, if we do even a shade better than what the manager ordered?

Then there is the group within the BCB, which selected Minhazul Abedin in a late drama, and the group that opposed. If Minhazul does reasonably well, even by Bangladesh standards, the pro-group will celebrate with chicken tikka a nun rooti. If the Chittagonian falters, it could be panta bhaat for them and an ascent for the opposition. To a great extent, for some of them, the 'Minhazul factor' has emerged as more important than how Bangladesh perform.

The erstwhile Selection Board, however dubious may have been its sacking, will be praying for an altogether different reason. Should Minhazul fail, or create indiscipline in the team as feared by some, will the BCB reinstate the sacked Selection Board?

Things could have been so much better had we all played as a team, and that's not only within the playing team. Cricket, and I have to contradict the pundits, is such more than batting, bowling and fielding. Many a game is won and lost in the dressing room, in the shades of the BKSP, in the corridors of the Bangabandhu Stadium. An encouraging statement from a responsible person, a pat on the back from another, can fire up a team (playing and non-playing) to perform beyond them. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true.

As far as the coming World Cup is concerned, we all have our own defensive walls and offensive weapons ready; the adversary are but from within us. We shall shield ourselves from their attack and unleash aggression on them. We shall fight each other as we do on every other front: social, political, cultural...

But, only to keep the records straight, because we so often change our minds (and words), every concerned party should write down their pre-World Cup forecast, seal it in an envelope and deposit the same with the Bangladesh Bank or in the deep seat of your conscience.

The advantage of the most-oft used phrase in Bangladesh, 'I had told you', is that it can be used either ways, in victory and in defeat, in failure and in success.