Adil Najam
How do I feel today with Pakistan having lost to India in the Semi-Final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup?
I feel exactly as I did on November 4, 1987. I was at the Ghaddafi Stadium in Lahore, as a sports reporter for the newspaper The Muslim, covering the Semi-Final match between Pakistan and Australia in the 1987 World Cup. Pakistan was the clear favorites. Pakistan lost.
How did that feel? Pretty much as today feels. It felt like this:
But as a reader wrote on my earlier post, I am sad, but not angry. Nor am I ashamed or dejected. In an odd sort of way, I am fulfilled. We tried our best.
Today was not our best day; but frankly it was not our worst day either. There have been many days in recent weeks and months when I was ashamed of what was being done in my name. Today was not one of those days. Today, I took many blows, but I stand tall. Today, I wait for tomorrow. Because, tomorrow is another day.
Congratulations, Team India on a well-earned victory.
Thank you, Team Pakistan, for a month full of thrills and chills and making us come together as a country again. Your fielding was rather pathetic, but you have made us proud nonetheless!
for making a a good example of what a country should be. Peaceful , prosperous and Shining!!!
And then Lida wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. I am thankful of lida that he/she did not say that Bal Thackray was actually from MalaKand and it was Taliban who killed the parrot who predicted the victory of Pakistan.
The video shared by Meengla is not surprising at all. You should watch it too.
@Ali Dada
I can feel your pain and I don’t know what to say. You say it right, we re the donors of happiness. Infact we are the donors of every thing I guess. From 1st 5-year plan to our own people and matches, we are just keep giving and thankless world does not even accept it, yet we consider ourselves so down and under dogs. May be because the helpers of those people in the disguise of Pakistanis are forcing us to accept our neighbor and USA as supreme forces hence to live under them. Whether it’s media or brain washed Paki expats who have been living under the inferiority complex for decades.
Now the question is, does the world end here? Offcourse not. Did India beat us ONLY in a game. Offcourse not! India have been beating us in many grounds for decades. Maybe in your profession too. Atleast it has been beating Pakistan in my profession. The question is, why you or me never felt same pain when India beat us in other fields? Specially when those fields were going to help the masses of our country. I think this is the question which every Pakistani needs to find out. Be it a farmer or a PhD, every one who is sad and gloomy needs to know the reason. Prolly we want to defeat India or anyone else on earth in the things where we don’t require efforts? After all , what does it take to glue yourself infront of TV and cheer the team? Nothing. So lazy ass Pakistanis would always be cheering for every ‘battle’ which does not ask them to do some work.
The match helped me to experience that Pakistanis can be united on a single point. Cricket should be declared the national language of Pakistan. Atleast all understand and feel it in same manner.
Terrorism and Taliban cost Pakistan the World cup.!!!!
Think about it??
If no Taliban then Pakistan would have had a chance to play the semifinal in the home ground. Maybe we would have won , that could have calmed Umar Gul and Mishbah.
Thanks Taliban for ruining Pakistan in every way!!!
And Thanks Pakistani qaum for sitting idly when Mullahs are taking over.
It was pathetic to see the whole Pakistani Public making Dua’s for a cricket game which has no meaning.
But staying quite while these corrupt Mullah and Politicians
ransack the whole country.
Wake up Pakistan and get your priorities right.
Look at India they have done everything right. And we have done everything wrong.
A Salute to India!!!! for making a a good example of what a country should be. Peaceful , prosperous and Shining!!!!
And yes I am from Pakistan for those conspiracy minded idiots (who I don’t give a damn about… Go rot in your conspiracy theories ).
India wins the world cup. Good job! They really outplayed SL today.
But I want the world to be aware of the level of intolerance, smugness, impolitness, and holier than thou attitude of Indian media and Indian team.
My post is not about who wins or loses. It is about how a nation carries itself in victory or defeat. It is about how a nation treats its guests in perhaps the most gentlemanly of all all multiplayer outdoor sports. India continues to fail on this.
Before even the India-Pak match was played out I said that Indians are the most intolerant, the most racist (yes, racist–against the black West Indian visitors) of all cricket spectators. The following interview of the Pakistani captain Afridi just confirms it for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xJhfHYpBs0&feature =player_embedded
This is the last time I followed cricket (and yes, I know, nobody should/would care about this).
First 2007 T20 final and now this semi-final. Pakistanis have been struggling so much – we have had decades without having any happiness in our lives. Day in day out we hear about corruption, killings, bombings, no electricity, etc.
The only thing which made us have some happiness was this team of ours. It was absolutely shattering how Pakistan ‘gifted’ the match to India this time.
I wouldn’t even blame the 4 dropped catches off Tendulkar as frankly speaking, Indian total was very small for Pakistan. However, the way Pakistani batsmen Younis Khan and Misbah Ul Haq played has totally destroyed my faith in Pakistan permanently.
These two guys had God given chance of guiding Pakistan to final yet the way they played, I literally felt panicked and could feel my digestive tract shutting down. People can keep on quacking till cows come home about how Younis and Misbah are needed but to me or were invaluable for this World cup, these 2 should be given jail sentence for the way they batted Pakistan out of World cup final.
Besides cricket, it really seems that for every success India has ever had – political and sports wise, Pakistan have always helped India. We are probably the biggest donors of happiness in the World – America sahab, you want to bomb us slave Pakistanis and want overweight Americans happy? Please Sir, start today, we will simply lie down and let you bomb us.
India sahab, you want to win in cricket matches so your nation can keep feeling happy? No problem, we will definitely loose the match by dropping baby catches and by playing test match style batting.
I am sick and tired and feel embarrassed of even calling myself Pakistani – I would gladly switch places even with a Somali as they have more pride and passion to defend their nation’s honor. Not like us Pakistanis who always favor others and always degrade themselves.
To heck with this looser Qaum – we always try to showcase ourselves as superman when we are totally inept and cowards in each and everything.