India-Pakistan Twenty 20 world cup final would be a dream come true for millions on this globe. And nothing could have surpassed the tense final moments of the final match. When Misbah tossed the ball of Joginder Sharma, many heart stopped beating. The catch by Sreesaanth put the heart beat back for Indians and perhaps took away few beats for Pakistanis. It was the most perfect finish we could have hoped for.
Shoaib Malik after the match remarked, or rather apologized, to the entire Muslims for losing! I found it extremely disturbing, to say the least. How justified is to associate the whole Muslim world with the cricket team of Pakistan? As a matter of fact this generalization is something very common among Pakistanis. They claimed to have acquired Nuclear weapon to protect the Muslim world when the first testing took place immediately after India tested its nuke. The basis being the only Muslim country to have acquired nuclear capability. The same logic was extended to cricket, Pakistan being the strongest among Muslim countries.
I found it so embarrassing when Malik mentioned this to Ravi Shastri as I was watching the match with my office colleagues. Murmurs immediately buzzed the extremely charged environment. People were critical how Malik was dragging the entire Muslim world into this. He gave a statement before the match that his team will definitely win as it is Ramdaan and his team members ‘jee jaan eek kar denge‘. Its a common perception that India can’t defeat Pakistan on Fridays as its an auspicious day for Muslims. Whenever a friend of mine used to mention this, I used to present my counter-argument based on the fact that India has more Muslims than Pakistan so why not India? I never got a reply back.Even though this statement might be considered frivolous in Pakistan and across the Muslim countries, well in case cricket does make any sense to any of them, it has serious repercussions in a country like India where Muslims are already seen with suspicion. Even though none of my colleagues commented about this statement but a doubt would definitely have burgeoned regarding my loyalties. A natural question would be, “who do you support?”Irfan Pathan should have objected to this as he was interviewed immediately after him. His clarification would have at least made Malik realise that his team was just representing Pakistan and why the hell is religion being brought into cricket?
I don’t want to be termed as a sadist who keeps looking for trifle things on an evening when India won the world cup and thus I don’t want this to be a harangue against the incident.
I think this is a classic example of a mountain being made out of a molehill! Shoaib Mallik does not speak very good english and thats just fine because its not his mother tongue! It was a final match, he is a young captain..its very possible for him to not be able to express his thoughts properly! I think this issue does not deserve an entire blog post nor does it deserve so many comments reacting to it! There are far more important issues that both Indians and Pakistanis should be worrying about!
I really think this is blown out of proportion. Nobody has a right to attack Shoaib for what he said.
Most people don’t even understand what he meant. Just leave him alone. As was mentioned by alot of people already Shoaib does not speak English fluently. This is his 3rd language so everyone should stop being so quick to judge him.
In any way he did not mean to offend anyone, nor did he suggest that all muslims all over the world support pakistan. The “apology” and whatever else he said was just for the fans who do support them. To everyone else who was offended, try not to be so over-sensitive.
And to the rest of the world, stop over-analysing Shoaib’s every comment. He is a young, new captain and he is trying his best! We should all respect him for that and overlook the small things that happen. He would never hurt anyone’s feelings intentionally!
its pure jealousy & envy.