sigh! I was browsing the web..trying to find out some news about Bangladesh cricket...it was after test status...and I stumbled upon rivals.net forum. The people I remember from there are Tehsin bhai, Rajputro bhai, Sham, Almer, Arnab, Fwullah, Handle and prolly some whose name escapes me...it was a long time ago...anyways I was more of a lurker than a poster but I did post
Anyways, ironically the site had to close because the hosting server thought there was a lack of interest?!!!! And tehsin bhai got this site (on the previous server). I waited 20 odd days or so...and then I registered...once again! We used to complain often that we didn't have enough fans coming to our site
Then we got 30 and then 50 members and then we somehow got to 100 members, then 150! Each series seemed to bring more members and lurkers (who eventually registered). I remember James' case well (Habibul_fan)! I thought at first he was a Bangladeshi living in Australia...but then we realised he was indeed our first non-Bengali fan on the site. As the site expanded, and we got more and more new members we decided to have several staff and mod positions (after a couple of untoward incidents), and also because we had some really talented people ready to volunteer their time and expertise to the site.
Around this time I remember Chinaman bhai! He became really active (particularly around the Pakistan tour) and has been contributing a lot (behind the scenes too) since. The different webpages that you see on the site are all thanks to the contribution of staff like Ehsan, Arnab, Nasif (another guy who works a lot behind the scenes- is directly responsible for many of the new features and the improvements in the discussion forum, the players' pages and fantasy cricket), James, Chinaman, Hasib and others. Now Dr. Z (Zunaid) is in the process of finishing up something special for the site which you guys will come to know of shortly.
Anyways let me get back to the story. Of course many of you guys remember the second time we got kicked out of the server hosting us. This time of course because we were too popular (the server couldn't take the load)! So now we are happily settled in our own server (won't have to move anytime soon I think) , thanks to an initiative by Raana bhai (we were offline for a couple of days max- I think), which has been funded through the generosity of many of our current members.
So here we are! We have now more than 800 members, and will probably cross a 1000 by the end of the year. There has not been much advertising to speak of. Most fans have come here on their own.
This site is run by volunteers who love Bangladesh cricket, and it is here because there are so many of us who love discussing about our cricket. I have glossed over some of the details but this is the jist I think. I am sure others can add to it.
Edited on, September 23, 2004, 10:34 PM GMT, by pompous.