An event beyond cricket

Nine stories above the busy streets of Mohakhali, a mere seven stories above the zooming motors on the Mohakhali flyover, Australia captain Steven Smith was standing on an open balcony and smiling as pictures were taken of the visiting captain, and for once those pictures were taken by people who do not have much to do with the game of cricket.

It was utterly at odds with the head-of-state level, prohibitive security arrangements that the team have become used to since August 18 (although that was in ample evidence with the armed security personnel very close by, just out of the photo frame), but for around 90 minutes Smith and five of his teammates were not cricketers; they were human beings from Australia getting an often painful yet enlightening insight into the lives of some of their Bangladeshi counterparts.

Inside were the offices of Oxfam in Bangladesh where Smith, Usman Khawaja, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird, Mitchell Swepson and Hilton Cartwright visited yesterday morning. They heard stories of domestic workers from Dhaka's Sat Tola slum, who are part of the Domestic Workers' Network formed by Oxfam and their partners.

"Some of the kids and some of the adults have some amazing stories. Pretty tough lives growing up as you know and expect in this part of the world, but until you actually hear it, it doesn't quite sink in," Khawaja said after the session.  "One of the girls went up and talked about growing up, the harshness she's faced in life. She couldn't even finish her story, it was that traumatic."

After some of the stories and a presentation on Oxfam's operations in Bangladesh, where the charitable organisation has had a role since pre-independence days , the Australians – whether by design or accident – paired up according to their roles in the team to talk individually to the domestic workers. Fast bowler Bird went along with Hazlewood, youngsters Swepson and Hilton stuck together while batsmen Smith and Khawaja went off in another pairing.

"And afterwards we actually did get to meet them, which was actually the best part. We got to talk to them about life in Dhaka, about cricket. They all seemed to like cricket, which is very nice," Khawaja said with a smile. They seemed to love cricket, but the domestic workers were seemingly a patriotic bunch. When the Swepson- Cartwright group were asked who their favourite cricketer was, a chorus of 'Shakib Al Hasan!' went up.

After the individual meetings the presentations turned to the perennial clean-water crisis which has been greatly exacerbated by the terrible floods that have afflicted and destroyed the lives of so many Bangladeshis. Oxfam presented some of the ways they have gone about solving problems, measures where the Australian government has provided valuable financial assistance such as the raising of tube-wells in flooded areas and the installations of two 'ATM water purifiers' through which slum dwellers can draw eight or 20 litres of water with Tk 2 and Tk 5 coins respectively.

"We've been here for under a week and we have seen just how quickly it rains. It reminds me a lot of Brisbane, but the drainage systems aren't obviously as good," Khawaja related. "We've seen a video of ladies literally going around on a little made-up flotation device and trying to get water out. We take it for granted so much back home... clean water just comes out from a tap and we drink it. And you don't actually think about how important clean water is until you hear the stories."

The event was attended by Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Julia Niblett and the interim country director of Oxfam in Bangladesh MB Akhter. The event ended with Australia captain Steven Smith recording a video message on behalf of suffering Bangladeshis: "The recent floods in Bangladesh have seen a death toll of more than 107 people with an estimated 5.71 million impacted. Many thousands have also lost their homes. Show your support for the flood victims of Bangladesh."

They then went back to the relatively trivial matter of preparing for the first Test, once again cocooned in their wall of security.