Expresso Sports Feature: The origin of the Naagin dance, and how it became a symbol of Sri Lanka-Bangladesh rivalry

The story goes that it all started sometime in 2016 with Bangladesh left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam Apu who was playing for Rajshahi Kings in the BPL, the T20 league. Nazmul went for the snake dance celebration, raising his hand above his hand like a hooded cobra when his captain Darren Sammy got into the act.

Nazmul is a popular character in most of the teams he has played, as can be evidenced in the dressing room videos of the BPL teams he has featured in. So, when he makes his T20 debut for Bangladesh in February 2018 and as it happens, against Sri Lanka, he continued his merry ways, pulling out his Naagin dance celebration when he picked up four wickets, including that of Danushka Gunathilaka, who was stumped by Mushfiqur Rahim. His teammates joined him in the huddle and mimicked the hooded snake.

In the next match, Sri Lanka wrapped up the T20 series win in Sylhet and Gunathilaka took two wickets in the 18th over to finish the game. When he took the series’ last wicket, getting Abu Sayed stumped, Gunathilaka pulled off the Naagin dance. Mushfiqur Rahim, the feisty veteran wicketkeeper-batsman, notices it, one presumes.

A month later in March 2018, Bangladesh toured Sri Lanka for the Nidahas triangular competition, involving India. And when they won their first game against Sri Lanka, an epic chase of 215 starring Rahim, who blasted a 35-ball unbeaten 72, Rahim pulled out the Naagin dance.

Tamim Iqbal would explain it later in a chat on Russell Arnold’s YouTube channel. “You can’t actually blame Mushfiqur Rahim. Sri Lanka was touring Bangladesh and they won a T20I series. After the final game in Sylhet. I think it was Danushka Gunathilaka, who started doing it when they won that series. After he did it, Rahim saw that and it was on his mind.”

It would boil over in the next game on March 16 at the Premadasa stadium, the second match between the two teams in the tournament, which also acted as a qualifier of sorts for the final.

It was a very bad-tempered game. Players from both teams kept having a go at each other during the game. Bangladesh’s dressing room door was broken by someone inside the room during their frenetic celebrations and it led to an inquiry and punishments from the match referee.

During the tense chase, with 12 needed from the final five balls, Bangladesh’s substitute Nurul Hasan and Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera were involved in a heated exchange. Hasan had run onto the field with drinks after there was a break in play when the umpires refused to rule the second short ball of Isuru Udana’s over as a no-ball. It had also led to a run-out of Muztafizur Rehman. The batsman Mahmdullah was debating the call with the umpires when Hasan went in. It led to shoving and arguing with a few Sri Lankan players, in particular with Perera. Hasan would be fined by the match referee.

In Nurul Hasan’s telling, this is what transpired: “I entered the field of play and was talking to Riyad before I asked the leg-umpire whether the first delivery was a bouncer. At that time Thisara came and told me “who are you to talk? Go from here, you don’t have to talk”. “I told him that I wasn’t talking to him. It was at that point that he verbally abused me. I told him that it was none of his business “Maybe I should have kept quiet. In the heat of the moment, I replied to him.”

Watching all this was the Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan. The refusal to call no-ball and the shoving had him in a fury. He charged to the sidelines, along with a few teammates, and got into an angry debate with the reserve umpire, Lyndon Hannibal.

Off the fifth ball of the final over, Mahmudullah blasted a six to win, triggering manic celebrations. All the Bangladeshi players poured onto the field, doing the Naagin dance. The Naagin dance was now officially entrenched as a celebratory mocking taunt between the two teams from this moment on.

During the celebrations, more arguments broke out between the two teams and a few players had to be calmed down and taken away.

Shakib Al Hasan would describe the events thus: ”Many things happened that shouldn’t have happened. I need to remain calm. I was overjoyed. Excitement was there. I must know how to react next time. I will be careful. What happens in the field should never spill over off the field. To be honest, we are all good friends. We see each other in the Bangladesh Premier League and Dhaka Premier League. The two boards have great relations. We help each other a lot. Just like I would want my team to win at all costs, they would have the same feeling. I am sure that both teams will never let it go off the field.”

In 2016-17, Nazmul Islam Apu liked Darren Sammy’s reaction to his Naagin celebration and makes it his signature style in BPL. Later in 2018, on his international debut, he performed when he took four wickets, and Sri Lanka’s Gunathilaka mimicked it in the next game when Sri Lanka won the series. A month later, Mushfiqur Rahim does the Naagin dance after a win against the hosts Sri Lanka. The next game in the same tournament between the two teams – a tense, fractious, ugly affair – saw it boil over.”

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