Pakistanis celebrate return of international cricket

LAHORE
ENTIRE Pakistan celebrates the resumption of international cricket in the country in a befitting style with a highly entertaining colourful opening ceremony of the first Pakistan-Zimbabwe T-20 match, filled with live music by top Pakistani singers, at Gaddafi Stadium Friday.
The T-20 series, the first international cricket event in Pakistan after a long gap of six years due to the unfortunate incident of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, has become an unprecedented source of joy for every Pakistani. The entire nation is celebrating this breath of fresh air which has broken the spell of haunting memories and the nagging fear of terrorism being faced by every Pakistani for over a decade.
In order to celebrate this great achievement on the part of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the government of Pakistan, a grand musical ceremony was held at the Gaddafi Stadium ahead of the first Pakistan-Zimbabwe match inside the Gaddafi Stadium, where Anne, Ali Zafar and Shehzad Roy enthralled the highly charged cricket fans and the general public inside the stadium and in the homes, where people remained glued to their TV sets to watch this mega event ball-to-ball.
The songs of these three young heart-throbs of millions across the world added fuel to the fire and took the enthusiasm of the already charged crowd to the new heights. The youngsters were seen dancing with joy and cheering the Pakistani and the guest team alike. This great reception by the lively crowd also gave a moral boost to the visiting Zimbabwe team as their captain was heard saying that he was feeling like playing on his home ground only.
The Pakistani singers kept the cricket fans in the stadium on their feet and jumping in joy. Despite the scorching heat and the unprecedented security hardships, thousands of people, predominantly youngsters converged at the Stadium hours before the match was scheduled to start to go through the rigorous security labyrinth. Gaddafi stadium and its surroundings were buzzing with cricket buffs and infested with the security forces.
Every inch of the Stadium premises and its nearby places like Ferozepur Road and Liberty Market had become like a No-Go area to facilitate the mega event. The strict security checks, a long list of dos & don’ts also irked people who had already come to the end of their wits due to the blazing heat. There were about 2,000 policemen deployed at the stadium to watch the visitors and three special security checkpoints were set up along with 4,000 policemen watching different areas in the surroundings.
Choppers were continuously flying over the stadium while around three dozen snipers were deployed on the rooftops in the stadium area. The most disturbing element which was a matter of great concern for women who had come to watch the match was the security checking being done by the male policemen rather than the woman police officers. Special and elaborated traffic management arrangements were also made by the CTO to ensure a smooth traffic flow around the stadium. Men, women and children clad in special cricket kits while holding Pakistani flags and placards were seen on the Gaddafi Stadium premises with various moral boosting slogans written on them. A great sense of joy and jubilation with a wave of great enthusiasm was seen all around the place. However, the excitement and prospects of a long-lost entertainment kept the tempers controlled.
The match, which has attained the stature of a national pride, was not just an entrainment event for the people but also a matter of country’s prestige, this notion also helped in keeping the people in-line and resulted in a highly appreciable display of self-control on the part of the Lahorites in particular and the people of Pakistan in general.