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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
“Lose with dignity” is a phrase that somehow went over the heads of the Bangladesh cricket team after their white ball series defeat against Zimbabwe in Harare which saw them lose both the T20 and ODI games 2-1.

Instead of congratulating their opponents for a job well done, Bangladesh resorted to undermining the Chevrons who got the better of them.

Having played for a Bangladeshi team that once lost 3-0 on home soil against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud ironically said losing to Zimbabwe “is a disgrace” after the Chevrons won the T20 series

This however did not go down well with cricket fans on twitter and one user posted: “After all we taught Bangladesh cricket and they are nothing special, really.”

Another twitter user said the manager must respect opponents, asking “shouldn’t teams like Zimbabwe win?”

Khaled Mahmud

The demeaning of the Chevrons did not only end with the Bangladesh team manager, the team captain Tamim Iqbal, after they lost the One Day series against a Zimbabwe team that was missing some of its best players, jumped on the bandwagon. Iqbal looked down upon the performances of Sikandar Raza, Innocent Kaia and captain Regis Chakabva, who scored hundreds in the series and said that it would have been better if such match winning performances were from Virat Kohli or Steve Smith for India and Australia, respectively.

“If we had lost to Australia or India, say Kohli or Smith had played such knocks against us, we wouldn’t have really taken it to heart,” said Iqbal in an interview.

One twitter user commented that times have really changed, pointing out that Bangladesh used to be ranked lower than Zimbabwe at one point and now they are expecting to be winning every game against the Chevrons.

Regis Chakabva

“This is the type of arrogance that makes the entire world laugh when Bangladesh lose,” posted another fan on twitter.

Another user commented: “This team’s players are never going to learn to respect their opponents, no other team has this kind of worst attitude, speaking as if they have won five world cups.”

Sikandar Raza

Tamim Iqbal, a senior player in the Bangladeshi side with over 230 One Day International matches under his name should have known better.

“Instead of praising Zimbabwe and their star player Sikandar Raza for a brilliant show against them, he just could not accept the fact that they have lost to Zimbabwe as they had taken them very lightly, pathetic statement from a captain,” posted another user.

“How is Tamim not belittling them? Everything in his statement is wrong and derogatory only,” said another user.