EGN NEWS DESK
Between sips of milk tea at a restaurant within the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi on Friday morning, Jaffer Ahmed dissected the nationwide cricket workforce’s shock loss to the United States.
“This is unbelievable and embarrassing,” Ahmed, 26, stated as he took bites of bread and lamented the defeat with associates. “How can we, with our cricketing historical past, lose to a rustic that doesn’t even have cricket in its DNA?”
Losing to the United States on Thursday within the Men’s T20 World Cup was a humiliation in Pakistan, the place cricket is the most well-liked sport and a part of the nationwide identification. The nationwide workforce received the World Cup in 1992, led by Imran Khan, who later rode his sports activities fame to a political profession that included changing into prime minister.
Many Americans had been oblivious to the magnitude of their victory in Dallas. But it was felt acutely within the shedding aspect’s cricket-mad nation. As followers woke as much as the information, they started making an attempt to digest what had occurred, watching highlights from the match within the streets.
“We must be educating the usA.,” stated Muhammad Sagheer, 32, “not shedding to them.”
Fans had been infuriated by their workforce’s poor exhibiting. The gamers dropped catches and missed bats, handing essential alternatives to the Americans, stated Feroz Shah, 30, who referred to as Pakistan’s recreation a catastrophe.
Pakistan had already been struggling, partially as a result of latest management shake-ups within the workforce and on the nationwide cricket board have harm morale, Aatif Nawaz, a British-Pakistani cricket commentator, stated in a video.
“A bitter tablet to swallow for Pakistan followers who’ve seldom seen darker instances,” he wrote on social media after Thursday’s recreation, calling it one of many greatest upsets within the sport’s historical past.
The United States, which had by no means performed within the World Cup, is a late bloomer on the worldwide cricket stage. It ranks 18th on the planet, under Nepal and above Oman. Pakistan ranks sixth. Thursday’s win was the most important but for the U.S. workforce.
“Pakistan regarded exhausted and helpless,” Waqar Younis, a former star of Pakistan’s nationwide workforce, wrote on social media. Wasim Akram, one other former nice, referred to as Pakistan’s efficiency “pathetic.”
American curiosity in cricket is rising together with its South Asian diaspora. Investors have poured over $1 billion into increasing the game nationwide. The home league performed its first season final 12 months and workforce house owners embody Microsoft’s chief government, Satya Nadella. The United States now stands an opportunity of qualifying for the subsequent spherical of the match, one thing seen as unlikely firstly of the World Cup.
Some Americans celebrated their win over Pakistan on social media, lots of them in awe that one of many star U.S. gamers, Saurabh Netravalkar, has a day job as a senior engineer at a software program firm. Oracle, his employer, stated on social media it was “happy with the workforce and our very personal engineering and cricket star.”
“It’s a giant achievement, you recognize, beating Pakistan,” Monank Patel, the present U.S. workforce captain, stated after the victory. “I’m actually happy with the boys.”
Another concern reverberated all through the cafe in Karachi the place Ahmed was consuming tea with associates. Pakistan is about to face India, its biggest competitor, on Sunday, in an occasion that may take over each tv display screen in each nations.
“If we couldn’t win towards the usA., how can we win towards our archrival from India?” Sagheer stated.
