COLOMBO, March 9: Former Pakistan captain and all-rounder Wasim Akram has urged the cricket-crazy fans in the country not to overreact after the team’s big defeat against New Zealand.
“I would like to appeal to our people not to take any defeat or bad performance to heart and not react like the Bangladeshi fans did,” he said in a post match comment here.
“Our team is a good outfit but in sports, other team also win by playing superior game on the day. We must learn to be patient and back our players all the way.”
Wasim added: “I have never subscribed to this sort of reaction by the cricket lovers. They must understand that at the end of the day it is sports and even players can have really bad days but these same players also bring lot of joy and celebration for their countrymen.”
He also expressed disappointment over the stoning of the West Indies team bus in Dhaka by angry Bangladeshi cricket fans after
the hosts by a big margin last week.
“Wherever such incidents happen it is most unfortunate because players’ lives are at stake and the organizers must make security for the teams tighter,” he said.
Wasim, who himself has twice come under fire and had his home in Lahore attacked by angry cricket fans after the 1996 and 1999 World Cups when he was captain, said the most unfortunate part was that miscreants targeted families of the players which could not be tolerated.”
