Pakistan, India trade parodies before Cup clash

ISLAMABAD: An advertisement parodying an Indian air force pilot who was briefly captured by Pakistan earlier this year has gone viral ahead of a highly-anticipated World Cup clash between the two cricket-mad nations.

The 33-second video shows an actor posing as handlebar-moustached Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was shot down after he violated Pakistani air space earlier this year and held briefly by Pakistan. He was released in a peace gesture aimed at defusing tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

Before his release the Pakistan Army aired a video showing Varthaman in custody, sipping tea and refusing to answer questions.

The latest ad comes as Pakistan gear up to meet giants India at the World Cup in Manchester on Sunday. The footage shows an actor with a moustache nearly as impressive as Varthaman’s. When asked: “What you are going to opt for after winning the toss? Who is in playing eleven?” the actor responds cordially with Varthaman’s now-famous “I am not supposed to tell you that, sir”.

At the end of the advertisement, the pilot gets up to leave — but the interrogator quickly asks him to “leave the cup”, a clear reference to the trophy. The ad, shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media, ends with the hashtag #LetsBringTheCupHome.

It has provoked some ire in India, prompting a decidedly more sinister video described as a “counter ad” depicting an Indian pulling a gun on a Pakistani before shooting his motorcycle tyre and warning him not to cross Indian cricket fans.

Most received the pilot video with good humour, however. “Let them keep the ‘chai ka cup’ only, we’ll get the World Cup,” tweeted Indian fan Mainak Mitra. The latest videos follow a history of cheeky advertisements released in both India and Pakistan around big matches.

During the 2015 World Cup an Indian sports channel ran a famous “Moka Moka (Opportunity)” advertisement which mocked Pakistani fans for their team’s repeated losses to India at the World Cup. In 2017, when Pakistan dramatically beat India in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy, another video showed Pakistanis handing tissues to Indian fans.

Some find the hype exasperating. “It’s only cricket for God sake,” tweeted Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, who is married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, after the most recent video. Pakistan are currently in eighth position at the World Cup in England, where the final will be played July 14. India are third.