Bangladesh and Netherlands haven’t contested an ODI since their game at the 2011 World Cup. It’s rare for established cricket boards to tour or host non-Full-Member teams in bilateral matches, so history is often forgotten, as is the case with Bangladesh vs Netherlands.

All the same, a lot of people in Bangladesh feel that if the national team hadn’t beaten Netherlands in the ICC Trophy second-round game in 1997 in Kuala Kumpur, there might not have been much cricket left in the country.

Bangladesh had been hoping to get into big-time cricket from 1979, when they first played in the ICC Trophy, but it was only in 1996 that the BCB started to think about Full-Member status. So, when the two teams met on April 4, 1997, there was a lot at stake. Bangladesh had three points from two games after a washout against Ireland; Netherlands were on more precarious ground with just one point. That made it a virtual knockout, since the winners got into the semi-finals, and closer to World Cup qualification – the 1999 World Cup had spots for three teams from the ICC Trophy.

Netherlands had the wood over Bangladesh till that point: they had won their first-round game by five wickets, and had also beaten them in 1990 and 1994.

“They were developing as a cricket nation when I first played against them in 1990. We were quite established at that time. We had a good team. They got better in 1994. They looked to be improving fast,” Roland Lefebvre, the Netherlands allrounder of the time, told ESPNcricinfo. “They were playing a lot of cricket back in Bangladesh. There was a lot at stake when we played them in 1994.

“Qualification [for the World Cup] was on the line. There was a handful of reporters and radio commentators from Bangladesh. It was quite rare in those days, particularly at Associate level. It was a close game but they lost in 1994. They were out of the semis. Their fans back home were irate. They took cricket very seriously [after that].”

Tim de Leede was the Netherlands captain in 1997. He also has vivid memories of the rivalry between the two teams back in the day, but not necessarily happy ones, because Bangladesh had tried to slow the game down since they believed they could go through with one point from the game – incorrectly – and there was rain around.

“It was a bit unfair. We didn’t bat very well [bowled out for 171]. We had them 15 for 4. Roland Lefebvre bowled brilliantly [with three early wickets]. Like the whole tournament in Malaysia, the rain came at 3pm – you could set your clock to it,” de Leede told ESPNcricinfo. “Almost every over someone came to change gloves or tie Akram’s [Khan] shoelace. We couldn’t reach the 20 overs for the result [before the rain]. So we had to go in with the wet ball on the wet pitch after the rain.

“Akram batted very well [to score 68 not out]. I think there were about 2000 Bangladeshi spectators. I am sure the match referee John Reid was scared of those people. They were angry. We have some mixed memories of the whole tournament and the Bangladesh team. Of course, there’s no hard feelings anymore.”

In a 2016 interview with ESPNcricinfo, Akram had admitted to wasting time in that game until they found out that they needed to win to go through to the semi-finals. “The game against Netherlands was played at a ground that was part of a huge park. We saw it was raining in the other ground, so we were trying to slow down the game,” he had said. “The English umpire [I Massey] was getting angry with me, but I had none of it. The rain came after 19.2 overs.

“We knew that it would now be one point each. We then got the news that one point won’t do, we had to win. We were in despair that this could be the end of Bangladesh cricket.”

Lefebvre was left disappointed as the rain delay, which made it a 33-overs-a-side game, meant that he could not bowl for more than seven overs. Lefebvre had always troubled Bangladesh in the ICC Trophy, but this time Bangladesh had the last laugh.

“I strangled them up front, but because of the rain delay and the match getting cut short, I couldn’t bowl more than seven overs. After all the time-wasting, they squeezed home” Lefebvre said. “We missed out on qualification for the 1999 World Cup due to that loss.

“I think it was a good rivalry. It was a very important moment for Dutch cricket. We had qualified for the 1996 World Cup. We had a good team. I thought it was strange to play the ICC Trophy in Malaysia at that time of the year. Every day at 3 o’clock, it was going to rain. A lot of results depended on the toss. I thought it was a poor choice to play the tournament in Malaysia. Bangladesh used time-wasting to their benefit.”

Except that Bangladesh had to get back and complete the match once the rain relented. And they had to win.

“During the 1997 ICC Trophy, our bus to the ground was very cold, so we always took towels to wrap ourselves. The [Bangladeshi] journalists used those towels to dry the ground during that Netherlands game,” Akram recalled. “I just sat in the corner and thought to myself: ‘People are praying for us back home, many of the Bangladeshi expat workers have come from far to watch us in this game, the journalists are drying the ground…'”

“Aminul Islam Bulbul, who I had known since the 1988 Youth World Cup, told me that after they won in 1997, the government sent them a plane to Malaysia to get them home,” de Leede said. “There were 250,000 people at the airport. We were gutted that we didn’t make the World Cup in England but when I heard that it was such a big thing in Bangladesh, it gave me so much relief. It made the loss easier for me.”

On Saturday at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Lefebvre will be groundside as the high-performance manager of Netherlands cricket, while de Leede is back home following his son Bas and the rest of the Dutch side.

Bangladesh’s survivors from that game include Athar Ali Khan, now a TV commentator who is in Kolkata for the game, and Khaled Mahmud, the current team director.

Mention “Netherlands”, and there’s nostalgia in Bangladesh’s cricket circles – that match was the tipping point for Bangladesh cricket. Netherlands remember that game bitterly, but as de Leede said, it’s water under the bridge now. There’s no rivalry these days. Indeed, there isn’t much cricket between them at all nowadays, with their paths having gone in different directions: Bangladesh have been a Full-Member nation for over two decades now, while Netherlands are still in the second tier, flying the flag for Associate cricket at the World Cup.