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!
@AliDada
Let’s not discuss the Semis. Referring your last comment, I would just conclude that Pakistan just ‘donated’ that match to India like we are used to donate other things so useless to talk about it. Afridi in the whole match looked helpless as if he knew about something which none of us know. I know like other issues we would never find WHY Pakistanis performs so weird, yes I would say weird rather bad because they were not playing natural game. All were seemed to attempt to lose the match. Now I don’t know the reason. Whether it was some pressure from Paki govt to surrender for sake of so called Indo-Pak relationship; threats by Hindu militant Organization Shiv Sena or Sattay Bazi by individuals. God knows and those guys know what’s the truth. I thnk anyone who knows any relative of Afridi could figure out the reason.
And +1 to what you said:
The problem I see in Pakistan is that each and every Pakistani has given up even before tryin
and
All Pakistanis do is sit and yap and yap and yap. We never have ‘guts’ to do anything.
The question is, do we have to BEAT India in games only? Why all of sudden India became enemy in cricket only? I cent percent agree with Afridi when he lashed out a journalist at Airport when he asked,”Aap India se Kion Haray?” and Afridi reacted severely by saying that Pakistanis don’t think about all this when following their customs, watching dramas,movies and listening songs and for Cricket they all of sudden morphed into a patriotic nation. Really, the Captain exposed the hypocrisy of us, Pakistanis. If Pakistanis are really so worried about all that then why do they even prefer Indian stuff in daily life?
@lida: I thnk you did not watch the video shared by other guy. When ignorance is bliss then its foolish to be wise. I see MEERA in you who even after face infinite insults in India, she still believes that Indians love her. No wonder we have several Meeras around in different forms.
And there’s a fine difference between friendship and Slavery. What you are preaching is slavery. I and many other Pakistanis are in favor of friendship with everyone but equal terms Period. Being ‘Darbari’ of countries like US,India or anyone else can’t give you a a respectable status in the world.
Adnan,
No one in the civilized world has any sympathy for our point of view, given our shenanigans.
Maybe if we would stop sending our country men over to India and killing their citizens in Mumbai, the Indians will reciprocate our warm feeling for them.
If some of our brethren would have not shot up the SriLankan team’s bus, we could have had the semi finals in Lahore and given the Indians a whupping.
No wonder, while the Indians drink from their cup of success, we drink the dregs of failure.
Adnan…. write … “Bal Thackray was actually from MalaKand and it was Taliban who killed the parrot who predicted the victory of Pakistan.”
Adnan you making no sense with your humor.
Bottom line is when I say wake up that includes you too. :)
Bal Thackeray’s live in Pakistan too. just open your eyes.
Shia-sunni infighting, Pashtu-Urdu speaking fighting in Karachi, Killing of 1 million Bengali’s in East Pakistan ( we have yet to acknowledge that)…. need I say more.
We blame everything on India and Israeli like that A$$ zaid hamid.
Plz clarify your hatred for India. So I can make sense of it.
Because I see a mini Zaid Hamid in you also. :)
@Ali Dada,
It is not necessarily about cutting your opponent’s throat and dog-eat-dog mentality. If everyone becomes like that, the world will be a sad and barbaric place, like it was a few centuries ago.
In today’s world, excellence is mostly about loving what you do for a living. Find your true calling and then work with passion, you will find a lot of success and mental peace.
Do do well in life, it is not necessary to have hatred in one’s heart for one’s opponent. Hatred only leads to suffering. Watch the bollywood movie ‘3 idiots’, it’s a bit cheesy, but it elucidates this idea well.
@Adnan,
the argument is not about why Pakistanis aren’t smarter or more educated or more richer than USA or China or UAE, etc.
The problem I see in Pakistan is that each and every Pakistani has given up even before trying. Sure, winning and losing is part of life but if you simply surrender and let others win, then there is a problem.
All Pakistanis do is sit and yap and yap and yap. We never have ‘guts’ to do anything. That semifinal is a clear reflection of what I am trying to say – Younis, Gul, and Misbah gave up even before trying! If I were Afridi, I would have asked Razzaq to bowl 10 overs instead of Gul who was having mental meltdown of epic proportions.
As a nation and society, Pakistanis now lack ‘manhood’ – we are not aggressive, we don’t defend ourselves, we are not competitive, we don’t embrace challenges and we don’t have the cut-throat/dog-eat-dog mentality.
Heck even the ‘Great King of Kings, the Sultan of Aggression, the real deal himself, the exhalted cricketing legend’ Sahibzada Shahid Khan Afridi kept on insisting how he wants to reach the SEMIS – why not winning it? What was with all the ‘happiness and joyful dosti’ stuff he was doing in match against India? Why didn’t he shout and swear at Gul? Why didn’t he send messenger to Misbah and told him to either score or get out? You could see that Indians were serious about the game while Afridi was smiling and was busy in the dosti business.
What a pathetic, sleepy nation Pakistan has become!