‘This is not war’: Fans bat for peace as India maul Pakistan
MANCHESTER: Passionate fans from both sides of cricket’s fiercest rivalry preached sporting peace ater India’s World Cup thrashing of Pakistan on Sunday in front of an estimated global TV audience of a billion people.
India extended their unbeaten World Cup run against Pakistan to seven matches with an 89-run victory in front of a vociferous, sellout Manchester crowd.
Despite the volatile political relations between the two countries, the majority of fans were determined that the sporting batle remained good natured.
“India and Pakistan have long been rivals in the cricket field but we have to move on from the hatred,” Amit Jain, an Indian at the match told AFP.
“This is not war, so take it as a game. All those news channels that were trying to spread hate are looking for some other news now.
“This is done and dusted for them. So we should realise this and grow up,” the 43-year-old London businessman added.
Most of the Pakistan supporters trudged away from Old Trafford early when rain interrupted with their team struggling at 166 for six ater 35 overs.
When the match resumed, Pakistan were let with a virtually impossible revised target of 136 more from five overs.
“India is a great team, no doubt about it and (India captain Virat) Kohli is a man who leads from the front,” said dejected Pakistan fan Ashraf Ali.
“We knew we had litle chance but had to keep our morale up by saying that we are going to win “It was fun siting along side our Indian friends and watching a good game of cricket. That’s how it should be. Peace is what we need.”
“My Pakistani patriot tweet for the day: It is just a game,” tweeted former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani.
Others were less sanguine.
“My thoughts and prayers goes out to the television sets across Pakistan,” tweeted one user along with a photograph of a man aiming an automatic weapon at a TV set airing the match.