Ayaz Khanzada
Once my friend’s uncle, who lives in England, favored a football team which was playing against England at the very day when he (my friend’s uncle) waved his hand to his English friend, a shopkeeper by profession, and said,” Today England will lose.” Following the match, the result appeared to be predestined and along with the defeat of England, perhaps, my friend’s uncle was shocked to pay for his statement, breaking the bridge of friendship between him (friend’s uncle) and his English friend forever. The statement, for his English friend, proved to be a couth feeling and disloyalty to the very land where he lived in and earned his livelihood.
This behavior, by an indigenous of a country abroad, might be considered a nincompoop’s unworthy attitude for our nation, but to my understanding, it is the intense level of patriotism that keeps the love for one’s motherland at the summit. By this context, loyalty to the mother land becomes the supreme factor for instilling a spirit of true patriotism in one’s heart.
Recently, Argentina lost the opportunity, which was just a stone’s throw distance and needed merely a tricky skill to send the goal keeper in the wrong direction to earn the crown of one of the glorious events (Copa America Centeriano) following Fifa World Cup. Being a world class player, Messi was imbued with inimitable skills to show the ball right direction but his unfortunate penalty kick favored Chile to lift the title this time.
For Messi the defeat seemed to have been like losing an Armageddon and followed his startling announcement to say fair well to his international career. Indeed, this decision, for a football fan, is too heartening. But, unlike other world class players, Messi did not opt for laying down his formal apology, a common practice among Pakistani patriotic players, though mistakes by star players are even loved and pardoned.
In 1994 world cup, Roberto Baggio, one of the greatest players of Argentina, took a penalty kick too high to hit the goal post which left Argentina beaten by 3-2 in the hands of Brazil after a decisive penalty shootout. In the same manner to have the onus of shame and criticism on his shoulder, England’s magical free kick-taker Dived Beckham, who had his third consecutive penalty to send into the seats, missed a decisive penalty against Portugal in EURO 2004. To justify the Messi’s resignation as a true patriotic act, none of the aforesaid star players went for resignation.
Messi’s true love, passion for football and recognition of his mistake while exposing self-responsibility might set an exemple for citizens, sports men, politicians and leaders of a nation such as ours, who often wander far away from the sense of patriotism. In the unending queue of sports men, leaders, politicians and people pertaining to various folds of society in our country, ‘patriotism’ is found nowhere.
The recent saga of Panama leaks which not only jolted the Pakistani politicians but put more or less worldly leaders of high repute across the world on tenterhooks. The first resignation, after Panama leaks, came from the Prime Minister of Iceland, a nation which is now pondering to vote for a history professor to hold the reigns of the state to strip him of the power in order to show responsibility and patriotism. In Mr. Nawaz Sharif’s case, Messi’s conspicuous resignation might have been an inspiration for him provided that he had been a Messi fan too.
Making PCB an example to legitimize the claim of Pakistani cricket players being true patriots, one has to pass through the intricate and puzzling walls of hazy apologies to visualize the patriotism in its real shape. And, to find a true patriotic player, in the face of blame game after consecutive blows, one gets tired. Thus, to replace the Messi with Pakistani cricket players, they are often seen on social media apologizing nation for their defeat.
Indeed, having cricket players embarked on an difficult training like army recruits get, octogenarian stake holders in PCB are the true patriots who never want to vacate the positions unless cricket in Pakistan slides and falls into the abyss of down fall, as hockey and squash are still unable to get out of comma of degeneration. Or, in some other cases, for our nation, true patriotism is the PCB’s not hunky-dory policies that reflect a recent move by Edhi to dig 300 graves as remedy to heat waves!
Writer is a currently pursuing his masters in mass communication from University of Karachi and He is as an avid reader.
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