Head of Sammaan Foundation Irfan Alam (left) at the rickshaw parade in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 19: Bangladesh gave it an international limelight and now and cricket lovers in Bihar are parading it to express their love for the game and for the vehicle.

Eleven rickshaws were pedalled by 11 people from different professions today from Shahid Smarak to Kargil Chowk as part of a procession to convey best wishes to team India in their World Cup campaign.

NGOs Sammaan Foundation and Tie organised the march, which was attended by school students and other cricket fans.

The fans, wearing Indian team jersey and sporting Tricolour and on their cheeks foreheads, cheered loud for Team India.

All padded-up for the march, Irfan Alam, head of Sammaan Foundation, which helps rickshawpullers in the city, said: “On behalf of all Biharis, we wish all the best to the Indian team.”

Slogans like Hum sabka ek hi sapna, World Cup keval ho apna were chanted during the march.

On the idea behind parading rickshaws in the march, Irfan Alam said, “I decided this after seeing the World Cup opening in Dhaka where our players arrived on the field in rickshaws. It struck my mind that this would be a great and innovative idea to cheer the team.”

He further said: “I have called people from all walks of life, including medical, science, entertainment, media, politics, education, society and few others. This is to signify the bonding and love for Team India. People from all walks of life want India to win the World Cup again and we are sure that it will happen again.” Anurag Sahay, a radio jockey who represented the media at the procession, said: “I believe that we have the best team and the best captain. All the players are very talented and they played extremely well in last two practice matches. We hope that this time the World Cup will be ours.”

The eleven rickshaws marched till Kargil Chowk and the invited guests waived at the crowd and later joined them in shouting slogans like Jitenge hum jitenge, World Cup jitenge.

The crowd followed the march till its destination.

P.K.Sahi, president of Tie, a non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, said that Team India will overcome all the challenges this time and will make history at the Wankhede Stadium where the final match will be played on April 2.

The richshawpullers participating in the march also cheered loud for the team.

Lohri Paswan, a rickshawpuller, said: “We all rickshawpullers love Sachin Tendulkar and want him to play well so that India can win the World Cup. This may be his last World Cup as a player and so we want him to gift the trophy to his fans and to the nation.”