Pakistan fans have made their displeasure known on social media ever since the team's poor show against arch-rivals India in their World Cup encounter in Manchester and a fresh video has surfaced where skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed has been compared to a pig.
Sarfaraz was walking in a mall in England with his son on his shoulders when a fan stopped him and asked why he was looking fat like a pig. The fan took a selfie and then posted the video on social media.
No manners. No respect. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour. Yes the performances have not been good but the players don't deserve such abuse #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/o8rMNTVGXI
— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) June 21, 2019
The video soon became viral with several people calling out the fan for his unacceptable conduct. Following the backlash, he later deleted the video after realising his mistake. Stating that he was a Pakistani himself, he apologised to Sarfaraz and everyone else who felt offended.
Power of Social Media, The guy who misbehaved with Sarfaraz Ahmed, makes an apology. Thank you @WaseemBadami @javerias @WasayJalil @AamirLiaquat @AhmedRazaQadri @Mustafa_Chdry @newspaperwallah @saurabh_42 for helping me in spreading this video. Should he be forgiven now? pic.twitter.com/vGAbT742ds
— Syed Raza Mehdi (@SyedRezaMehdi) June 21, 2019
This is not the first time when fans have crossed the line and got personal with the Pakistan players. In fact, photos of Shoaib Malik, his wife Sania Mirza and Wahab Riaz partying on the eve of the India-Pakistan game started doing the rounds soon after their loss to Virat Kohli and boys on June 16.
In a game that was completely dominated by India, Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir was the only bright spot as he returned figures of 3/47 from his 10 overs. And while the fans were not pleased and took to social media to ridicule the players, Amir had requested them to not use bad words even though they were free to criticise the players.
Taking to Twitter, Amir wrote: "Pls dont use bad words for the players yes u guys can criticise our performance we will bounce back InshAllah we need ur support (sic)."
Shoaib Malik also added his bit on Twitter and wrote: "On behalf of all athletes I would like to request media and people to maintain respect levels in regards to our families, who should not be dragged into petty discussions at will. It's not a nice thing to do."
Interestingly, the Pakistan Cricket Board had come out with a clarification that the photos of the players dining and partying till late on the eve of the high-voltage clash was actually not from the eve of the game.
"The cricketers did not violate their curfew," a PCB spokesperson told DawnNewsTV.
"The videos and photographs that went viral (on social media) are from two days before the match. The day before the match against India, all the players were in their hotel rooms by curfew time."
With IANS inputs