MANCHESTER: A video of cricketer Shoaib Malik, his wife and Indian tennis star, Sania Mirza and Imam-ul-Haq visiting a local sheesha cafe late Saturday night, hours before the high-voltage World Cup fixture between arch-foes Pakistan and India on Sunday, went viral and drew criticism as broken-hearted cricket fans took to social media platforms to express frustration over the 89-run defeat.
The video shows Sania Mirza, Shoaib Malik, and other Pakistani cricketers sitting together in a café, while some of their friends smoking Sheesha.
Shoaib Malik of the #pakistancricketteam at midnight, hours before the most crucial match of the #CricketWorldCup2019 In Curry Mile In a Shisha cafe. Add the burgers and deserts, no wonder they performed dismally at Old Trafford. They should be ashamed. Every single one of them. pic.twitter.com/Dr8gHWdF9M
— Mohammed Shafiq (@mshafiquk) June 16, 2019
Some of the Britain-based Pakistan cricket fans claimed to watch the former skipper and others cricketers smoking Sheesha at 2 am on Sunday, Winslow Road in Manchester.
As troubled green side unsuccessfully chased a mammoth 337, Malik earned his second naught of the biggest cricketing event as all-rounder Hardik got the senior batsman on the very first delivery. Reportedly, as he walked back to the pavilion, angry fans started roasting his wife Sania Mirza, who is an Indian national.
Meanwhile, the Indian tennis star hit back to the Twitterati and said that “that’s the video you shot without asking us, disrespecting our privacy even though we had a child with us?& got told off for doing so,& u came up with this crap?FYI ‘outing’ was dinner & yes ppl are allowed to eat if they lose a match! Bunch of fools! Try better content nxt [next] time”.
?That’s the video you shot without asking us,disrespecting our privacy even though we had a child with us?& got told off for doing so,& u came up with this crap?FYI ‘outing’ was dinner & yes ppl are allowed to eat if they lose a match!Bunch of fools!Try better content nxt time? https://t.co/51gnkMWUYu
— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) June 15, 2019
Pakistan, who had won the toss and decided to bowl first, lost the rain-affected game to India by 89 runs according to the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method.
