Shehbaz Sharif’s Hong Kong Sixes Tweet Exposes Pakistan Cricket’s Obsession With India

 

Image :X

Boria Majumdar

Political leaders tweeting about sporting achievements has become a global norm. Sport is an instrument of soft power, and such posts are par for the course. But Shehbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, has taken the cake with his tweet the other night. He congratulated the Pakistan team on beating India in the group stage at the Hong Kong Sixes and went on to praise Mohsin Naqvi and his team for the achievement.

I am willing to concede that it is not the Prime Minister’s job to follow every inconsequential cricket tournament around the world. He has a country to govern, after all. But what about his advisers? Are they so ill-informed that they would encourage him to post something that makes him a laughing stock in front of the world? Do they not understand where this competition stands in the global cricket hierarchy? Is this really something a Prime Minister should be tweeting about? The post makes him look like an ill-informed enthusiast rather than the head of government.

The tweet also tells us something significant: how India occupies so much space in Pakistan’s thinking, and how anything involving India assumes disproportionate importance. With Pakistan repeatedly losing to India in international cricket, in both the men’s and women’s games, the country appears desperate to cling to whatever victories it can find. And that desperation is such that almost anything will do. So what if it is the Hong Kong Sixes? When the objective is to appeal to a domestic audience and win political brownie points, anything and everything becomes useful.

Perhaps the intended audience knows little about the tournament and will take the tweet at face value. Perhaps the political messaging will work. Either way, the post exposes the insecurity surrounding Pakistan cricket and the frustration that repeated defeats against India have created.

The Prime Minister’s office is the highest executive office in the country. It carries a certain dignity and deserves a degree of respect. Turning it into an object of ridicule should have consequences. Whoever approved the tweet should be questioned. Those responsible for advising Sharif on such matters need to explain how they allowed this to happen. The Hong Kong Sixes, meanwhile, could hardly have asked for better publicity. It received free promotion from the Prime Minister of a country, and at virtually no cost.

For Pakistan cricket, the tweet is also a reminder of how far the sport has fallen short of where it should be. It remains some distance from the standards it aspires to match, particularly when compared with the scale and depth of cricket in India. On Sunday, Pakistan, who lost to UAE in the group stage, will face off against Oman for fifth place. If they win, will the same social media managers recommend a tickertape parade?

Instead of tweeting congratulatory messages, Sharif would do well to ask Naqvi and his team what they are doing to put Pakistan cricket back on track. There is little to be gained from turning the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Pakistan Cricket Board president into a mutual admiration society. Sharif should be asking the difficult questions and demanding answers.

Perhaps, when Pakistan cricket is back where it belongs, he will have more substantial achievements to celebrate. Until then, the focus should be on rebuilding the sport, not celebrating a Hong Kong Sixes victory as though it were a defining moment in international cricket.

Follow Revsportz for latest sports news

The post Shehbaz Sharif’s Hong Kong Sixes Tweet Exposes Pakistan Cricket’s Obsession With India appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Consistent Nicholas Pooran can be world’s top T20 batter

Image
Nicholas Pooran’s carnage against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Image: IPL He has always had a calmness about him. A very West Indian relaxed kind of mindset and demeanour. And having seen adversity, he knows that one needs to celebrate and value the good that comes your way. The urge to keep getting better, and be the best version of oneself, is what defines the new Nicholas Pooran. That’s what came through in the candid conversations we had on the IPL and his own approach to batting. Not overawed by the 21-crore price tag or the weight of expectations, Pooran is simply going about his job. He knows he can hit the ball miles and is keeping it simple. Go and do what you do best for hours and hours at practice, and in doing so, help your team Lucknow Super Giants] demolish opponents. “The best part about this franchise is they have never put me under pressure,” he told me. “When you are paid a lot of money, there is always pressure. Not so much from outside but from within. You know you ne...
Read more

From scoring ton in Patna to taking on bouncers like a ‘bullet’ in Perth – Nitish’s story of perseverance

Image
Nitish Kumar Reddy during the 1st innings of the Perth Test (PC: Debasis Sen) “Grateful, an innings to remember.” Nitish Reddy had posted the aforesaid statement on his Instagram account after cracking his maiden first-class hundred, against Bihar, in Patna. It wasn’t just about Nitish scoring an unbeaten 159 for Andhra. It was also about the way he scored those runs. He essayed a few crunchy drives off Veer Pratap Singh and also showcased his range of shots against Ashutosh Aman, the left-arm spinner, by playing with the turn and also against the turn. This hundred from Nitish came just before the 2024 IPL season, where he accumulated 303 runs. Once again, it wasn’t just about Nitish accruing 303 runs as he accumulated them with a touch of class. Soon, the Indian think-tank drafted the all-rounder into the limited-overs set-up. Although he missed the Zimbabwe series because of a hernia problem, it was crystal clear that the coaching staff had a vision – to pick him for the tour o...
Read more

Turning the clock back by 0.12 seconds

Image
MS Dhoni with a stumping dismissal against MI in the IPL 2025 in Chennai (PC: BCCI) The moment of the Chennai Super Kings-Mumbai Indians match lasted less than half a second. It was the 11 th over of the MI innings. Suryakumar Yadav was bringing the batting side back in the game. Noor Ahmad beat him on a forward charge, the ball spun away, and the right-hander’s hind leg got off the ground before he planted it back. That was all MS Dhoni needed to brush the bails off. At a packed MA Chidambaram Stadium decked in yellow and chanting his name, that was the only occasion when Dhoni was in ‘action’. It showed that at 43, his reflexes have not slackened and he has got sharper in plotting dismissals. This one was replayed on TV again and again during the match and commentators couldn’t help but keep talking about it. He had conceded four byes on the leg side in the same over. But this was the Dhoni who elevated stumping to another level. When it comes to waiting for batters to err wit...
Read more