The year was 1996. The same year that Pakistan and India hosted the Cricket World Cup.
On a dial-in-show on Indian MTV, a girl calls in. The host chats her up and asks whether she follows cricket. She did, we were told. The host then asks, mock-serious, which team she is supporting.
Pakistan, she replies. It took a couple of seconds for the host to realise that she wasn’t kidding. Really, he asked. Why?
“Because that’s the team that Shahid Afridi plays for.”
That was The Tube’s first encounter with the border-hopping admiration for sportsmen. True, going by Afridi’s statistics, the man doesn’t even deserve Pakistani fans, but it was a proof of concept, if you will.
It is a phenomenon that rears its head every now and then. Usain Bolt is the fastest human being ever clocked. In one of the interview after winning gold at the Olympics, the Jamaican said that his hero was Waqar Younis and, because of that “Pakistan was my team”.
Not the West Indies, asked a surprised interviewer, “Well, I was young; it didn’t matter. I looked up to Waqar Younis.”
That’s what sport does to people. When it comes to true fans, not the sort who watch cricket whenever something big comes up, sports bring people together. The media, with its coverage slanted because of national narratives, cannot conceal the poetry in motion that great athletes display.
If you are a sports fan, you will appreciate the kinesthetic intelligence that these (mostly young) men and women display regardless of where they are from.
You will marvel at their ability, at times, to seem to suspend the very laws of physics. And for a lot of viewers, specially the younger ones, at times the athlete’s good looks do the trick. At times, it might be the demeanour — be it reckless bravado or a lazy elegance — that wins over a fan, not as much as athletic ability.
It was in that vein, at that passionate age, that Umar Draz, a cricket fan from Okara, hoisted an Indian flag on his house because of his love for Indian batsman Virat Kohli.
Word got around and the police registered a case under Maintenance of Public Order and remanded him in police custody.
Now, the media has been covering it as a sign of the youth not being nationalistic enough. But, truth be told, there really isn’t much to it other than a sports fan’s love for a star.
Instead of pontificating TV programmes of the nau-jawanon ke liye sabaq amoz variety on this issue, the news media should pressure the Punjab government and ensure that the poor kid doesn’t see another day in the slammer.
It is a shame when clerics brandishing ISIS flags and decrying the state of the Pakistan are roaming about free in Islamabad, whereas a person hoisting an Indian flag as a clearly innocent act of fandom is incarcerated.
I think u should ashamed there is much difference between favoring and putting an enemy flag on roof? What that guy wana proof by that if he is fan ok he just wana publicity but he dnt knw the law ..so u should ashamed fr blaming everybit on govt u mean if other are waving isis flag so everyone has right to do wrong thngs come on these kinda thoughts destroyed our country. Instead u should write the importance of ur Mother land n its flag n sovergirty
Dear writer…I am fan of kohli's batting but it doesn't mean I will hoist indian flag on my house….There is a hell alot of difference between a fan and Psycho.
Is there any law on the books which forbids Pakistani citizens from hoisting the flag of another country on their rooftop? If not, I'd like to know on what basis that guy in Okara was arrested.
R u mad? If u fan of kohli u keep ur feelings in ur heart not show if others. We are pakistani we will not want that an other country flags fly on our roofs or any place in PKISTAN.
Remember! We are pakistan and pakistan is our heart.
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