Pak captain’s uncle to root for Team India
KANPUR : When India take on arch-rivals Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final on Sunday, Mehboob Hasan from Etawah, Uttar Pradesh will be rooting for Team India.
However, it is a different matter that Hasan’s nephew Sarfraz Ahmad is captain of the Pakistan team. So, how would he deal with the pressure of an India-Pakistan match? “Where is the pressure? He (Sarfraz) is playing for his team. My children and I always root for Team India,” says Hasan.
“His team cannot match our team. We have better players and our team is superior. I can bet that India will win the trophy,” says Hasan, who once went to the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer to pray for Sarfraz getting a chance in Pakistan’s playing XI.
Hasan, a senior clerk with Etawah Agriculture Engineering College, lives in Etawah with his family. Sarfraz’s mother Aqeela Bano (Hasan’s sister), after marrying Shakeel Ahmad, moved to Karachi, where the family runs a stationary shop.
Despite tricky visa regulations and only three face-to-face meetings, Hasan, 52, and Sarfraz, 30, share a close bond.
Sarfraz came to Etawah for the first time as a four-year-old along with his mother to attend Hasan’s marriage in 1991. They met for the second time in June 2015 when Hasan visited Karachi for Sarfraz’s marriage. Later, Hasan and his family also watched him play at the Gaddafi stadium .
“He flew us from Karachi to Lahore for this match,” he recalls with pride.