What is your opinion regarding the low key reaction to this win (or actually to all our wins)? I didn’t hear about people crying (yes, I saw it happen) or shooting their TV and themselves (yes, this happened too) when we lost. And similarly people didn’t go bonkers after a win either.
IMO, this change shows that people were not necessarily put off the test series by the matchfixing accusations or the loss in the ODI series but it’s just that our priorities have changed. I personally think it is a great development and I couldn’t have been happier especially with the highlighted parts.
You win a match, you give yourself a pat on the back, perhaps celebrate depending on the significance of the match and start preparing for the next game like the awesome Aussies do. You lose - you go back to the drawing board and figure out what went wrong and how to rectify it in th next game. But there should be no burning of posters, effigies and houses, throwing of stones, baseless matchfixing accusations, frivolous lawsuits, raucous and meaningless celebrations that waste time and money especially for insignificant games, etc.
It’s great to see Pakistani fans finally taking a mature approach towards the game. We’re a dignified, mature nation and it’s about time we showed ourselves as one. Now if only some of our past players could learn a lesson or two from the fans..
**Pakistan fans indifferent to win **
By Adnan Adil
**Gone are the days when people in Pakistan used to distribute sweets, chant slogans and set off fireworks to mark a cricket match victory over India. **
When batsman Taufeeq Umer scored a four to seal his country’s victory in the second Test match, there was a only a small crowd in Lahore’s huge stadium to applaud the nine-wicket victory over India.
**Across the city the streets were quiet and people went about their business as usual. **
Lahore does not appear to be as enthusiastic about a win over India as it was 15 years ago, when Pakistan’s neighbour last visited this country.
Although Pakistan was poised to win the match on Thursday, most cricket fans opted to stay away from the stadium to see the match on TV.
Perhaps it was the hot weather that kept the people away.
In the general stands of Lahore’s 23,000-seat Qaddafi stadium, there is no protection for the spectators. On the final day of the game, the temperature rose to 40 degree centigrade.
Stringent security measures means that spectators are not allowed to leave the stands until the day’s play is finished.
They were not allowed to carry matches to light their cigarettes and drinking water was not freely available.
Test matches usually do not attract huge crowds in Pakistan unlike one-day matches which can often witness riots outside ticket counters.
Naqi Akbar, an office worker, said scheduling the match on working days kept him from attending it.
“I would have gone if it was played on a Sunday. My six-year-old son was insisting he wanted to see the match in the stadium.”
In fact most cricket fans in Pakistan lost their interest in the game when Pakistan lost the one-day series. Many are quite astonished at the fluctuating performance of the two teams. “How can it happen that a team lost by one inning in Multan and now has won the other test by nine wickets?” asks Sohail Raza, 35.
**But others view things differently and say perhaps Pakistan’s cricket fans have become more mature.
The contrast is with the 1970s when the game was viewed as a war between India and Pakistan. **
"There are people from India who have come to see the matches here and Pakistanis throw chocolates at them.
“This series is being played in a friendly atmosphere,” Naeem Tahir Sheikh, 50, a businessman says.
India’s defeat in Lahore after an overwhelming victory in Multan may not have caused much celebration in Pakistan.
But it has generated some interest in the last test match to be played in Rawalpindi next week, as that will decide the final outcome of the series.