Dhaka Decks Up for World Cup Opening

By Diksha Sahni and Prerna Sodhi

This evening all eyes are going to be glued on Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka—and on the newly refurbished 25,000-seater Bangabandhu National Stadium, to be precise—where the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 will kick off at 5:30 p.m. IST with a grand ceremony that is going to feature about 4,000 performers.

The tournament is taking place in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but Dhaka gets to play host first.

“The ceremony is divided in three segments, with each segment categorically representing each of the host nations,” said Mohammad Ali Ahsan, the ICC tournament director for Bangladesh. “The performances would showcase the socio-cultural glimpses of each country.”

Bangla composer Ibrar Tipu will start things off by belting out, “Welcome to Bangladesh,” accompanied by other young singers. They’ll then cede the stage to Indian Bollywood singer Sonu Niigaam who will greet the 14 participating cricket teams’ captains with  his  self-composed work, “Rise for Glory.”

A team from Indian event management firm Wizcraft International Entertainment  Pvt. Ltd. has been designated to organize the show. The firm previously put together the spectacular opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi in October last year.

Wizcraft India director Sabbas Joseph elaborated on the themes that will distinguish each national segment.

For India, the themes are colors and festivals, which will “end with performers gathering on the stage to form a diya [lamp] representing the festival of Diwali,” said Mr. Joseph.

For the island nation Sri Lanka, what could be better than the theme of “Pearl of the Indian Ocean” where the “entire stadium will have a look as that of a sea and a pearl emerging from it, which would represent Sri Lanka,”  Mr. Joseph said.

Bangladesh’s segment will include well-known  performers like Runa Laila, who records songs for movie soundtracks in Bangladesh and Bangla legend Sabina Yasmin, known for her patriotic songs as well as her movie numbers.  The country’s theme is the “Rising Tiger of Asia.”

“This segment would focus on the history, how the country won the freedom and the call of the founder of their nation for liberation and how the country progressed,” Mr. Joseph explained.

After the country segments, the groover from Vancouver, Bryan Adams, is up. Fortunately he’s not likely to have to worry about a repeat of his Delhi cancellation this time — it takes a lot for South Asia to postpone something that’s cricket-related.

Bollywood composers Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, who came up with the  World Cup’s theme song, “De Ghumma Ke”, will be performing it in three different languages – Hindi, Bangla and Sinhalese.

“We have once performed in Bangladesh, but that was only a private corporate event,” said Mr. Noorani. “This time the audience will be different and we are quite excited to be performing the theme song.”

What’s the star turn in this extravaganza?

An “aerial cricket act” in which “performers will play cricket on the façade of a building,” Mr. Joseph said. We’re intrigued.

Are you going to watch? Let us know what you thought of the World Cup 2011 opening ceremony in the Comments Section.