Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has confirmed that his daughter waved the Indian flag during Pakistan’s Super Four match against India at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Speaking to a private news channel, the former Pakistan all-rounder said that his family was at the stadium to watch the high-profile encounter and his daughter picked up an Indian flag as she couldn’t find a Pakistani flag.
The former captain said that his wife told him that during the match only around 10 percent of the stadium was occupied by Pakistani supporters while the Indian crowd was in majority.
Afridi added that he was sent the video of his daughter waving the Indian flag but he wasn’t sure if he should share the video.
Pakistan had won the match by 5 wickets with just one ball remaining thanks to the all-round performance of Mohammad Nawaz.
So bad. Not a good act.
We don’t have much of a rivalry with India. Nor are we passionate about playing against them. In fact, Pakistanis threw fits in the 1996 final when Sri Lanka won. We weren’t even playing at the time. Then, in 2019, the captain was removed because of a 3-0 defeat against Sri Lanka. The defeat against Sri Lanka in the Asia cup final might have angered people again. The impression is that we taught them how to play, so how they can’t be better than us? But overall, cricket isn’t as popular as football and if other team sports are introduced, they’d grow too. And even if it was popular, our young people, while watching the screening of the Pakistan vs. India 2015 World Cup match at different college campuses, wore Indian jerseys. In 2016, the Lahore vs. Karachi match had higher ratings, which means there was more interest among Pakistani fans, compared to the Indian World Cup match. Of course, PSL has become boring and redundant so we now have the KPL, Junior League but it won’t be sufficient to satiate the appetite of our young people who are avid sports’ fans. We need more private leagues for different sports. Our intra-country rivalries are far more profitable. Look at how many stadiums have been revived just using our close to 250 million population (including Azad Kashmir). We haven’t had any international tournaments or that many teams touring other than Sri Lanka. Imagine if this was replicated for other sports and rivalries were created between different cities, clubs and even players. Playing with India just isn’t as profitable and useful. Numbers don’t lie. Neither do ratings, stadiums, and sales of sports apparel. And when compared to football, cricket pulls even fewer crowds. These are just ground realities.
Afridi, daughter did not commit any mistake as cricket just time pass game does nothing with the fame and glory of a nation.
Shahid Afriadi and his family are very broad minded. Must migrate to India
Shameful is the only word which comes to my mind
Shame