Islamabad - Jubilations are rare these days in Pakistan
as suicide bombers roam around looking for targets, but the nation's
victory in the Twenty20 World Cup provided the sad nation with an
opportunity to celebrate.
Thousands swarmed the streets and danced to frenzied drum beats
when the skipper Younis Khan lifted the trophy in Britain's Lords
cricket ground Sunday after defeating Sri Lankan by eight wickets
with eight balls to spare.
Waving national flag and chanting slogans 'Long Live Pakistan,'
they took to the streets in almost every town and village, in sheer
joy and comfort.
'Every single day we see blood and dead bodies on television
screens, mosques being blown up, women and children slaughtered by
those beasts (Taliban) in this great country and it has made me very
sad,' said Javed Ahmad, standing among a crowd of hundreds of noisy
celebrants in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
'But today is a different day, here we have eventually something
to celebrate as a nation. Here we have something to be really proud
of,' he added.
Taliban and al-Qaeda have unleashed terror in Pakistan for the
last three years, killing thousands of people, creating an atmosphere
of fear in the country where the economy slowed down to the record
low this year. Many analysts fear the nuclear-armed Islamic country
was inching towards becoming a failed state.
The deteriorating security situation even raised questions about
the future of cricket in Pakistan. The Sri Lankan cricket team
survived an attack when it was being escorted to Qaddafi stadium for
a test match in eastern city of Lahore on March 3.
Seven Sri Lankan players were injured while six policemen and two
civilians died in the attack, which resulted in the cancellation of
international cricket, at least for now, and putting Pakistan's
hosting of 2011 World Cup at stake.
But the terrorists failed to defeat the spirit of cricket in
Pakistan, which is so crazy about the sports. With little practice
over the last one and half years and forced to travel the world
finding opportunity to play cricket on foreign soil, Pakistan was an
underdog since the start of the Twenty20 championship.
Pakistan started slowly and teetered towards the semi-final but
finally found discipline and fire to beat the top favourite South
Africa, a vibrant side throughout.
In the final, the green shirts were overwhelming. They gave Sri
Lankans little chance to recover from early setbacks when slow-medium
Abdul Razzaq and 17-year-old pacer Mohammad Aamir get rid of top four
batsmen just for 32 runs.
With a target of 139 to win, Pakistan never looked back. An
unbroken third-wicket stand of 76 in 59 balls between unpredictable
Shahid Afridi and talented Shoaib Malik led the team to empathic
victory, cheering people up back at home.
'This is a great victory because it's going to improve our image
in the entire world,' said Ali Raza, a university student who had
come to enjoy the match being shown live on a big screen in a cinema
hall in Rawalpindi.
'Terrorists are few and still the entire world labels this whole
nation as terrorist. This demoralizes everyone in the country. But
now we have shown the world by winning the Twenty20 World Cup how
talented Pakistanis are,' added Raza.
Following the spectacular win, Pakistani captain called upon the
world for the resumption of international cricket in Pakistan, an
appeal which is going to remain unheard, at least for now when the
country is struggling against Taliban in the north-western region.
'I know the situation has been bad but it is not our fault. I am a
proud man and this win is a gift for the whole nation,' Younis told
reporters at Lords. 'My message to the world is, please come to
Pakistan.'
USA
Your Talkback on this Story