Following Pakistan’s loss against India in the much-hyped ICC World Cup match, members of the Pakistan cricket team faced an immense backlash at the hands of the public. Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, in particular, bore the maximum brunt of the upset Pakistani fans who fat-shamed him and called him out for yawning on the field.
A video of a cricket-goer who called Sarfaraz “a fat pig” in a mall in England while he was with his son also went viral. But many fans stood up to support him after that and pressurised the guy making the video into apologising for his distasteful comments.
In a recent interview with ICC Insider Zainab Abbas, Sarfaraz opened up about the experience.
“This was playing on my mind, but I didn’t pay much heed as I thought he won’t do this as his family was also with him. I spoke to his family. One of his family members also apologized on his behalf. But when the video became viral my body language was demotivated. It was not because of me. It was because of my son Abdullah who was with me at that time. That’s why it hurt me even more,” he said while speaking to Zainab about the video.
Sarfaraz shared that after the video went viral he returned to his hotel room to find his wife crying which really hurt him.
“When I went back to the hotel I saw my wife was crying after watching the video. I tried to explain to her that this is just one video and that we have had people walk up to us and tell things. This is nothing serious we must be strong. All of this is a part of life, when we don’t perform well we will have to go through all this,” the skipper said.
The skipper also revealed why he did not react there.
“I was very angry at that moment, but if I had gotten into an argument people would not have seen the truth and I would’ve been seen in a negative light instead. That’s why I felt not reacting to the incident was the best response as I left it to God,” he said, adding that he was very grateful to everyone who stood up for him. He even said that the fans had a right to be angry “because they have expectations from us.”
Following their humiliating defeat, Pakistan went to win their next two match against South Africa and New Zealand.
Watch the entire interview here:
