Pakistanis celebrate, doom and gloom for Indians

ICC Champions Trophy

LAHORE: The Pakistanis, whether in the country or living abroad, on Monday continued celebrating the victory against India in the ICC Champions Trophy final.

The feeling is not limited to Pakistanis as even Indian media, Bollywood actors and foreign players are praising the historic performance. However, the story is different in case of India with a feeling of doom and gloom, while security has been enhanced at the houses of the cricket team members.

Most of the Pakistan team members are returning home via Dubai today (Tuesday). Sarfaraz Ahmed and Ruman Raees will land in Karachi, Haris Sohail in Sialkot, Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim in Islamabad, Fakhar Zaman in Peshawar and Babar Azam, Hassan Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Ahmed Shehzad in Lahore.

On the other hand, Muhammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Azhar Mehmood will stay in the UK for some days, while the team manager, Talat Ali has arrived in Manchester.

Meanwhile, Head Coach Mickey Arthur, Fielding Coach Steve Rixon and Physiotherapist Shane Hayes have left for Australia and Grant Luden (Trainer) for Zimbabwe. The team officials will arrive in Lahore in the third week of July before the boot camp at Kakul.

The win was celebrated in London and Birmingham too where the streets echoed with national songs and the slogan of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ as cars decorated with Pakistani flag were visible on the roads. The Pakistani community members had arranged large TV screens for watching the final live and they enjoyed every moment of the match. Even the London policemen were seen dancing along with the Pakistanis during the celebrations. Similar scenes were seen Glasgow, Oxford and other cities.

Naz Shah and Lord Nazir, the British MPs of Pakistani origin, too congratulated the team, saying the nation got such a great happiness after a long time. Pakistan Super League Chairman Najam Sethi and his wife as well as Shahzeb Khanzada celebrated the moment with spectators at The Oval.

But the loss was hard to digest for Indians from London to Kanpur and New Delhi as they broke their TV sets in disgust and cursed Virat Kohli, as they could not face the performance of Muhammad Amir and Fakhar Zaman. The Indian media, which earlier declared their team as ‘Bahubali’, unleashed a round criticism.  Bollywood celebrities Ranveer Singh, Abhishek Bachchan, Sushmita Sen, Farhan Akhtar, Riteish Deshmukh, Varun Dhawan and Arjun Rampal were among those praising the Pakistani team.