Amongst the plethora of precepts and postulates in Hindu philosophy, a crucial one is 'Shabda Brahma'- that is, word or its synchronized form in sentence is synomymous with divinity.It is an axiom because , as we all know, a tender word or sentence can soothe wounded hearts, a harsh one can offend and trigger a backlash while a word or sentence of wisdom can cast a spell on an audience. It is through the power of words that great men , prophets and statesmen have imposed their will on people down the annals of human history. 
This long introduction might seem an exercise in redundancy unless the issue is presented in proper context and perspective. Ravi Shankar Jayadrit Shastri, manager of the visiting Indian cricket team in Bangladesh , was a cricketer of repute and a successful captain-albeit for one test match. During the past decade Shastri has emerged as a globe-trotter as a cricket commentator for leading international sports channels. But Shastri's current obsession seems to be emulating the well known loose cannon of Indian cricket , Rajsingh Dungarpur-at least so would seem from his bluster in the post-match interaction with media at Dhaka on last saturday . 
'Ask him after the last one-dayer on May 15. We have come here to show no mercy......to take no prisoner, our aim is to make a clean sweep in the series' Shastri thundered in an indecent overreaction to Whatmore's innocuous comments on the performance of Bangladesh cricket team in the second one-dayer. 'India is a better side but the gap is not much , over the years we have narrowed down the gap' Whatmore had rightly said in reply to queries from media persons. Even the most fanatical of Indian supporters would tend to agree with Whatmore's assessment which Shastri in a very crude and unsophisticated way capitalised on to unloose his tongue. It is Shastri's good fortune that Bangladesh media largely ignored his bluster but the sense of shock and pain among cricket fans in the media was palpable : the cricket reporter of popular daily 'Jana Kantha' took comments from three senior Indian cricket reporters, Lokendra Pratap Shahi, Debasish Dutta and Sumit Mookherjee on the state of Bangladesh cricket and displayed the highly appreciative and positive comments prominently.
Apart from the reprehensible nature of Shastri's verbal excesses , his outrageous comments in a sovereign neighbouring country brings into focus his lack of appreciation of how the game has been shaping up in Bangladesh. Apart from their excellent track record against Kenya and Zimbabwe in successive matches, in 2004 Bangladesh had lost the first one-dayer against India in Chittagong but equalised with an emphatic win in Dhaka though finally the hosts lost the series. In 2005 minnows Bangladesh pulled off a major upset by taming the mighty Australians , capping a successful chase of 250 run target. India's pathetic show against Bangladesh on March 17 in the world cup is still too fresh in memory to bear recapitulation but this takes nothing away from the fact that , having outplayed India in all departments of the game Bangladesh earned a richly deserved victory. It is another matter that Indian media and cricket fans behaved as though the sky had fallen over their heads through the defeat with Bangladesh even though cricket is a sports where you can not expect to win all the time.
Ravi Shastri perhaps did not assess the possible impact of his petulant statement on Bangladeshi cricket fans and players. First and foremost, Bangladesh team will steel their resolve and invest every ounce of energy to give a fitting reply by forcing a win against India . Secondly , Shastri's unfortunate comments will help to reinforce popular perception in Bangladesh about India being a big bully , always trying to bludgeon smaller neighbours into meek submission. Thirdly and most importantly, Indian players and administrators in all games abroad are unofficial ambassadors of the country whose conduct and utterances are always put to scrutiny . A veteran sports-and currently media person-like Ravi Shastri was therefore expected to be more restrained and sensitive with his reactions and statements. After all India had taken more than two decades to register a win in test match after commencing play in 1934 and we also have the dubious distinction of having been the most cheaply dismissed test side- a pitiable 42 against England in 1974. Words like the proverbial sling shots can not be pulled back upon being hurled and bad words leave a bad taste and a trail of bitterness .