Former pace great Wasim Akram was left fuming after few female teachers and students applied make up and jewellery on the posters of the Pakistan players to mock them after their exit from the Asia Cup.
“People should be ashamed at making fun of our team,” he told the media here on Saturday.
The incident happened at a private educational institution in the Karimabad area here, one day after Pakistan were defeated by Bangladesh and crashed out of the Asia Cup.
According to some television channels, the teachers and students of the school were so upset with the team’s performances that they vented their anger by applying make-up and jewellery on the posters of the players in the premises.
Some teachers told a channel that the players should leave playing cricket as the women cricketers could do better than them.
After Pakistan lost to India in the Asia Cup, in some places angry cricket fans had broken their television sets and set effigies of players on fire to vent their anger.
All these didn’t go down well with Wasim.
“Our team is going through a bad phase, the players are out of form and under pressure. They need support at this stage not to be mocked and made fun off in this manner,” he said.
He pointed out that the players were national heroes but also human beings and the way some of them were ridiculed and mocked in different ways on channels was shameful.
“If we continue to go overboard in our reactions then it will neither help our team nor Pakistan cricket,” he cautioned.
Pakistan’s Test skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq also said the team needed to be backed and supported when the chips were down.
I ask whose team is this. Does it belong to some other country?” It is our team, it is Pakistan’s team and this is the time for everyone to support it wholeheartedly,” Misbah, who has been captain in the different formats since 2010, said.
