Cricket is a sport that takes you up one day and brings you down the next. One of the biggest cricket rivalries is over, for now. A few days ago, India defeated Pakistan yet again, for the 7th time in the World Cup. The saga of the Indian Cricket Team continues but this time it came as a tsunami for the Pakistan Cricket Team supporters. As soon as the news of Pakistan’s sorry loss to India spread over social media, the internet erupted in mocking them!
The Pakistani media and few former cricketers started to spit out venom; some blamed Sarfaraz’s decision-making skills, some put the onus on a bad team selection while some blamed the ‘first class’ infrastructure in Pakistan. Amidst the hustle-bustle, emotional Pakistani fans quite frankly turned into fanatics.
From memes, and tweets to videos, the Pakistan Cricket Team had to face immense trolling! But, amidst all this narrative, no one applied their better sense and rationality forward. After all, isn’t it all about winning and losing? One must lose and only one must win. If one doesn’t commit any errors, how can the other one triumph?
As one of the biggest fans and critics of cricket, I believe that it is played 99% with mind and only a mere 1% attributes towards one’s skills and talent. All cricketers playing at international level know how to play, what differentiates them is how one executes their plan, soaks in the pressure and uses their mental ability in crucial situations. And this is where the Pakistani cricketers failed.
The former players demeaning the Pakistan team on their YouTube channels for their petty interests were once a part of the same squad. Was the team capable enough to beat India back then? This is extremely childish and a mere gimmick for publicity and a motive to act like dictators and not rational experts.
Pakistani media and analysts would blame and ruthlessly deliberate it as an underperformance by the team. Former cricketers shame and defame the team on all platforms. When it comes to cricket, Pakistani media may actually be the worst at spreading falsehood, propaganda and defaming of their own national players. To me, it seems that most ex-cricketers are selfish and eyeing for a Pakistan Cricket Board job by degrading their own national team.
Fans can get emotional and are free to express their emotions, but a little bit of decency and professionalism is expected of senior players. It is just a game. Instead of defamation, they should support the team. Losing to India is not the end of the world, there is a lot more to achieve!
The people who are against Sarfaraz are the same people who were arms against Waqar Younis in 2015 when Sarfaraz was not considered for the first few games of the World Cup. How can they forget the contribution of Sarfaraz towards Pakistan’s cricket? He is the one who led the team to the Champions Trophy and moved the team to number 1 spot in T20’s.
My only request for all fans, critics and experts is, no matter which team you support, support it like professionals. If you can celebrate and embrace the team in their wins, why can you not support them during their bad times? Let’s not be fanatics, let’s be fans!