Yes. Gambhir, very very Ghambir. Why? Because India is Gambhir (complex, not simple).
On April 2, 2008, hours before the Cricket World Cup Final, Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir vowed to win the cup for the Mumbai 2008 victims.
On April 5, 2008, Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi lashed on Indian media and towards Gautam Gambhir's statement.
Minutes later, the Indian and Pakistani media went hay-wire to sell the new "controversial" story, and the honeymoon was over.
Indians from all over the world and "very sane" Pakistani condemned the Pakistani Captain. However, Gautam was let go. Why because he is Gambhir? Even though, I would agree that Afridi steamrolled it but it seems that no one will understand his aggression. Everyone jumped to remind Afridi that he was the one who chewed a ball. On the contrary, the Indian will claim that it was quite honorable of Gautam to say that as Mumbai suffered a lot. #orly?
This whole event shows that why our relation have failed once and again. India does not like to be critical of itself. It does not like to admit when one of its public figures is wrong. Especially in the case of Pakistan, Indian media will never ask its own politicians or people. Not a single sound source of India media came out and clearly said that Gautam should not have made such a statement.
It is usually seen when a Pakistani puts the words "India" and "bad" in the same sentence and half of its population will come running to remind you that "India is great and how Pakistan would never be like India". Indeed, India is great and Pakistan will never be India but always remember that there are three fingers pointing back when you point at someone. If one of our players would say that "I dedicate the win to the people who lost their in Samjhota Express incident", would India consider it as an honor or an insult? Even if one of their players would say something like that, will it not cause trouble for himself. On the contrary, some of our mainstream media got critical of Afridi's statement and placed him in the right place. However, we over-did it by loading it all on Afridi while ignoring Gautam's statement. Writing daily op-eds on Afridi's statement does not help.
Eventually, Afridi's outburst does make some sense. India has been very close-minded and quite close-hearted. The Indian media created too much hype. Both the captains were not happy when they were playing the semi-final. The feel of a good cricket match was missing that we saw in other matches. It seems that both the teams played for their lives. Furthermore, if the Mohali semi-final ever happened in Pakistan (do not mention security, we know already), I am sure the Pakistani media would have done similar things but on a smaller scale. Surely, we would not have been filming black stone practice sessions. Furthermore, if India would have won the match on our home ground, Pakistani public would have still cheered for them. We celebrated when India won, not extensively but still we did as we knew that it was a win towards peace. Thanks to the very Gambhir-minded (complex minded) Gautam, there is now a bad after-taste to it. Afridi did not helped it either by bringing in religions which made it more worse, and then the South Asian media made sure that the bad after-taste stays for long.
Being critical of yourself does wonders. For the past decade, Pakistan has been a lot critical towards itself. The media here indeed is almost identical to India but it has tried to empower the public to make their own opinions and see things under a broader perspective. Thanks to the terrorism, Pakistan is quite critical of itself and it tries to make amend for anything that cause troubles for it and other countries in the region. If India learns the same thing, it would be wonderful for the region. Being venerable or over-protective has never helped India or Pakistan.
On April 2, 2008, hours before the Cricket World Cup Final, Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir vowed to win the cup for the Mumbai 2008 victims.
On April 5, 2008, Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi lashed on Indian media and towards Gautam Gambhir's statement.
Minutes later, the Indian and Pakistani media went hay-wire to sell the new "controversial" story, and the honeymoon was over.
Indians from all over the world and "very sane" Pakistani condemned the Pakistani Captain. However, Gautam was let go. Why because he is Gambhir? Even though, I would agree that Afridi steamrolled it but it seems that no one will understand his aggression. Everyone jumped to remind Afridi that he was the one who chewed a ball. On the contrary, the Indian will claim that it was quite honorable of Gautam to say that as Mumbai suffered a lot. #orly?
This whole event shows that why our relation have failed once and again. India does not like to be critical of itself. It does not like to admit when one of its public figures is wrong. Especially in the case of Pakistan, Indian media will never ask its own politicians or people. Not a single sound source of India media came out and clearly said that Gautam should not have made such a statement.
It is usually seen when a Pakistani puts the words "India" and "bad" in the same sentence and half of its population will come running to remind you that "India is great and how Pakistan would never be like India". Indeed, India is great and Pakistan will never be India but always remember that there are three fingers pointing back when you point at someone. If one of our players would say that "I dedicate the win to the people who lost their in Samjhota Express incident", would India consider it as an honor or an insult? Even if one of their players would say something like that, will it not cause trouble for himself. On the contrary, some of our mainstream media got critical of Afridi's statement and placed him in the right place. However, we over-did it by loading it all on Afridi while ignoring Gautam's statement. Writing daily op-eds on Afridi's statement does not help.
Eventually, Afridi's outburst does make some sense. India has been very close-minded and quite close-hearted. The Indian media created too much hype. Both the captains were not happy when they were playing the semi-final. The feel of a good cricket match was missing that we saw in other matches. It seems that both the teams played for their lives. Furthermore, if the Mohali semi-final ever happened in Pakistan (do not mention security, we know already), I am sure the Pakistani media would have done similar things but on a smaller scale. Surely, we would not have been filming black stone practice sessions. Furthermore, if India would have won the match on our home ground, Pakistani public would have still cheered for them. We celebrated when India won, not extensively but still we did as we knew that it was a win towards peace. Thanks to the very Gambhir-minded (complex minded) Gautam, there is now a bad after-taste to it. Afridi did not helped it either by bringing in religions which made it more worse, and then the South Asian media made sure that the bad after-taste stays for long.
Being critical of yourself does wonders. For the past decade, Pakistan has been a lot critical towards itself. The media here indeed is almost identical to India but it has tried to empower the public to make their own opinions and see things under a broader perspective. Thanks to the terrorism, Pakistan is quite critical of itself and it tries to make amend for anything that cause troubles for it and other countries in the region. If India learns the same thing, it would be wonderful for the region. Being venerable or over-protective has never helped India or Pakistan.
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