by Peer Mohammad Amir Qureshi
The ongoing T20 Asia cup which is being played in the United Arab Emirates which before was to be hosted by Sri Lanka but due to their economic instability and political crisis they informed to Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to play it somewhere else other than Sri Lanka. The match which was played between Pakistan and Afghanistan with high spirit, enthusiasm, and friendly gesture with laughs and love but the whole scenario changed when Asif Ali in the 19th over was involved in an ugly and unattractive altercation with the fast bowler of Afghanistan Fareed Ahmed who misbehaved with Asif Ali by sledding, pushing and shoving him. In retaliation, Asif Ali also waved his bat against the same bowler but was intervened by other players along with the empire to diffuse the entangled situation. The poor geste from the Afghanistan side not only dismayed the fans of Pakistan but also the giant Legends of Cricket as Fareed Ahmed And Asif Ali didn’t show real sportsmanship spirit.
Now Asif ali and Fareed Ahmad are feared to be slapped with penalties as they breach the code of conduct of international cricket council rules and they should be fined or to be prevented from playing the next match but Fareed Ahmad’s suspension wouldn’t matter for his team now because they are out of the tournament but the inform hitter of Pakistan Asif Ali’s suspension may get Pakistan into trouble as they seek to lift the trophy against Sri Lanka. Pakistani wise captain Shadab Khan said, “The incident happened in the heat of the moment and was left on the field”.
But unfortunately, it was not left on the field because Afghanistani spectators lost their cool and it has become their veritable nature to act up after their loss, especially against Pakistan which seems to be in the timber of the arch-rivals like India and Pakistan. The Afghan spectators not only vandalized and defaced the Sharjah colosseum but they also beat the Pak fans and throw chairs at them after the narrow loss from Pakistan after the Pakistan cricket team pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win over Afghanistan as Naseem Shah smashed two consecutive sixes in the last over. Social media was flooded with videos in which Afghanistan fans were seen ripping up seats in the air and launching them through the air and on the Pak spectators which is open thuggery and ruffianism which is a roughneck and didn’t have any space in the cricket. The legendary pacer Shoaib Akhtar got angry and called out Stanikzai in the tweet in wake of the disturbing incident. “This is what Afghan fans are doing. This is what they’ve done in the past multiple times. This is a game and it is supposed to be played and taken in the right spirit," he said. Shafiq Stanikzai your crowd & your players both need to learn a few things if you guys want to grow in the sport," Akhtar added.
But instead of showing humility, the ex-ACB chief supported his fans. “You can’t control the emotions of the crowd and such incidents happened in the world of cricket multiple, you should go ask Kabir Khan, Inzamam Bhai, and RashidLatif how we treated them,” he told Akhtar.
In July 2019 during world cup match frays broke out between Pakistani And Afghanistan fans at the Headingley ground in Leeds, in the north of the UK, seemingly catching police off guard. Some supporters traded punches and others tried to break through the gates.UK police failed to prepare themselves for implicit trouble, despite the two countries sharing a long history of enmity over their shared border. In the previous T20 world cup but not many would have expected a near stampede situation as groups of Afghanistan fans tried to get into the Dubai International Cricket Stadium without tickets. Fans had started coming in for the Friday evening game in large numbers from as early as the afternoon, but the trouble started when some fans tried to enter the stadium minus tickets. The International cricket council should take tight security measures in order to prevent such situations where there’s huge animosity between the two nations they should deposit security settings so that incidents like that wouldn’t happen again as there’s no place of such behavior in cricket as it’s the game of gentleman.
The author is currently pursuing MSc in zoology,.He tweets at .He can be reached at ehsaanamy133@gmail.com.views are exclusively his own.
