LAHORE – A news which has been continuously striking the Indian media is, “Semi-final between India and Pakistan on Mohali is fixed. According to a report from Gupta, an income tax officer, bets of billions of rupees have been placed on the Indian team so India must lose.” Some Indian news channels comment that this news could not be wrong because the Indian income tax commissioner was claiming that the match was fixed. They report that since millions of dollars have been betted, so bookies would never want India to win.
Pakistani pundits interpret this in their own way. They claim that the Indian media was indulging in reporting such news to force ht Indian team to perform well otherwise the public will raise fingers against the players and would blame them for match fixing. Sohaib Alvi, a cricket analyst, said that the Indian media was trying to take away the credit from the Pakistani team if they win and was building up for it. Pakistan’s team’s practice on the black marble was also termed a conspiracy by the the Indian media, claiming that Pakistan’s team deliberately attempted to injure their main batsmen, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulker.
Pakistani cricket fans are saying that the Indian media is pressurizing the Pakistani cricket team ahead of the match, which should not be tolerated. They question, “Where is Haroon Logart now when everybody is saying that Indian media is involved in match fixing?” They also allege that Pradeep Agarwal, a bookie, was in the dressing room of the Indian cricket team during their matches. They have asked the ICC to take action against them.
