My heart full congratulations to Team India on winning World cup after 24 years. It is a great record in 20/20 World cup first team who prevail the World cup is Team India. But I want to say at this moment in this match both the teams have 50/50 chances to win but every body knows if luck is your side then every thing will turn out to be on our side automatically. It happened in the same manner. At the same time I request both the teams that please take religion out of cricket and play the game supportively.

Mukul Kesavan you must be good at the English language and eloquent in writing, I’ll give you that but this article if you had to stick to purely cricket would have scored more points and what you have done is managed to drag this whole issue of religion thing in the media. What you have done with this issue is stir the pot by highlighting a most probable slip of the tongue by someone who is not as eloquent as you . Shoiab is no fool to make a statement on tele (I hope that was not his intention) and as you rightly asked the question and quote …”is this the forum to talk about this?” To answer your own question – NO – I don’t think so . To quote you again “Shouldn't Cricinfo and cricket's online community stick to cricket and leave issues like this alone?” YEAH, take your own advice here ! it would help if you stick to cricket and leave religion and political issues to the politicians !!!!!!!!!

Why don’t you utilize the time to hon your skills as that is your bread and butter and give us some tasteful articles in future !!

I do think it is highly likely that Shoaib meant to say "I'd like to thank all Pakistanis and all the Muslims who have been praying for us during Ramzan" - but his discomfort with the English Language caused the slip. It does seem unlikely that either religious zealotry or ignorance could have caused him to make such a comment based on the following two points: 1. Note that he had, quite refreshingly (and unlike our former captain) not mentioned God in his post-match interviews until then. This had given me the impression that he is not a religious zealot - certainly not one who would have meant to insinuate what he ended up coming across as saying. 2. Also, remember that he came close to getting married to an Indian Muslim (until the marriage was called off earlier this year). I do remember that when the news of the prospective marriage was broken by the media (during the 2005 Indo-Pak series), his father-in-law made a statement (in jest) to the effect of saying that Shoaib shouldn't expect his new family to start supporting Pakistan. So he certainly isn't ignorant on the matter either - as several comments have seemed to insinuate. (I should point out that regardless of his former fiance and his father-in-law, it is unlikely that he would be ignorant of such matters anyway! - not least because of Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan etc, nor because the vast majority of Pakistanis of his background and experience would not be *that* ignorant) (Another strong possibility is that he meant to say "I'd like to thank all Pakistanis and all the local Muslims in Durban who have supported us" - after all, in most places that Pakistan plays, many local Muslim groups go out of their way to help the team out)

Having said that, yes ignorance and prejudice (religious and otherwise) is, unfortunately, fairly prevalent in Pakistan - and has gotten worse with fundamentalism's rise. The perpetrators of this ill are a small but extremely vocal part of the population. Many Pakistani Muslims (including, most likely, many (if not most!) who have given comments on this website) are unaware of the issues and intolerance that many Hindus, Christians and other minorities in Pakistan have faced simply because they are non-Muslim (although their own ignorance of this issues does not *necessarily* indicate a prejudice on their own part). Despite this, based on my experience, non-Muslim Pakistanis tend to be at least as fervent supporters of Pakistani cricket (or for that matter, any matter of national pride) as Muslim Pakistanis. And the vast majority of Pakistanis couldn’t care less about Danesh Kaneria being a Hindu (and many take special pride in that fact). This situation is not too dissimilar from that of non-Hindu Indians (not to mention dalits), many who have faced prejudice and even violence because of what community they belong to (once more, only from a relatively small but vocal percentage of the population) – although many Indian Hindus are unaware of their plight. Yet, the vast majority takes great pride in the Indian cricket team.

Circumstances have created a breeding ground for the poor and disaffected to be swayed by such sentiments in Pakistan – but Indians should note the parallel with the methods used by the Shiv Sena and the radical elements of the BJP in Bombay, Ayodhya and Gujarat. (Note that there have not been any incidents on these scales with minorities in Pakistan (or at least any reported since partition) – although that certainly could be attributable to the fact that Pakistani minorities are 4% of the population, whilst the similar figure in India is around 18%).

So, while Pakistanis are far from blameless in their treatment of religious minorities, their religious chauvinism and their general awareness of these problems, Indians should look at the problem as one that infests both sides of the border. Religious arrogance and communalism is prevalent in both countries. Although the vast majority of both populaces do not subscribe to this narrow-minded view, we would all do better if we looked at our side of the border more critically…

A non-Muslim Pakistani

(PS: I’m looking forward to getting flamed by both sides)

I do think it is highly likely that Shoaib meant to say "I'd like to thank all Pakistanis and all the Muslims who have been praying for us during Ramzan" but his discomfort with the English Language caused the slip. It does seem unlikely that either religious zealotry or ignorance could have caused him to make such a comment based on the following two points: 1. Note that he had quite refreshingly (and unlike our former captain) not mentioned God in his post-match interviews until then. This had given me the impression that he is not a religious zealot - certainly not one who would have meant to insinuate what he ended up coming across as saying. 2. Also, remember that he came close to getting married to an Indian Muslim (until the marriage was called off earlier this year). I do remember that when the news of the prospective marriage was broken by the media (during the 2005 Indo-Pak series), his father-in-law made a statement (in jest) to the effect of saying that Shoaib shouldn't expect his new family to start supporting Pakistan. So he certainly isn't ignorant on the matter either - as several comments have seemed to insinuate. (I should point out that regardless of his former fiance and his father-in-law, it is unlikely that he would be ignorant of such matters anyway! - not least because of Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan etc, nor because the vast majority of Pakistanis of his background and experience would not be *that* ignorant) (Another strong possibility is that he meant to say "I'd like to thank all Pakistanis and all the local Muslims in Durban who have supported us" - after all, in most places that Pakistan plays, many local Muslim groups go out of their way to help the team out)

Having said that, yes ignorance and prejudice (religious and otherwise) is, unfortunately, fairly prevalent in Pakistan - and has gotten worse with fundamentalism's rise. The perpetrators of this ill are a small but extremely vocal part of the population. Many Pakistani Muslims (including, most likely, many (if not most!) who have given comments on this website) are unaware of the issues and intolerance that many Hindus, Christians and other minorities in Pakistan have faced simply because they are non-Muslim (although their own ignorance of this issues does not *necessarily* indicate a prejudice on their own part). Despite this, based on my experience, non-Muslim Pakistanis tend to be at least as fervent supporters of Pakistani cricket (or for that matter, any matter of national pride) as Muslim Pakistanis. And the vast majority of Pakistanis couldn’t care less about Danesh Kaneria being a Hindu (and many take special pride in that fact). This situation is not too dissimilar from that of non-Hindu Indians (not to mention dalits), many who have faced prejudice and even violence because they are not Hindus (once more, only from a relatively small but vocal percentage of the population) – although many Indian Hindus are unaware of their plight. Yet, the vast majority takes great pride in the Indian cricket team.

Circumstances have created a breeding ground for the poor and disaffected to be swayed by such sentiments in Pakistan – but Indians should note the parallel with the methods used by the Shiv Sena and the radical elements of the BJP in Bombay, Ayodhya and Gujarat. (Note that there have not been any incidents of these scales with minorities in Pakistan (or at least any reported since partition) – although that certainly could be attributable to the fact that Pakistani minorities are 4% of the population, whilst the similar figure in India is around 18%).

So, while Pakistanis are far from blameless in their treatment of religious minorities, their religious chauvinism and their general awareness of these problems, Indians should look at the problem as one that infest both sides of the border. Religious arrogance and communalism is prevalent in both countries. Although the vast majority of both populaces do not subscribe to this narrow-minded view, we would all do better if we looked at our side of the border more critically…

A non-Muslim Pakistani

(PS: I’m looking forward to getting flamed by both sides)

(PPS: It is also quite possible that he meant the "local Muslims in Durban

For so long as there is thinly disguised hatred between Pakistan and India (which won't be disappearing any time soon), there will be flashpoints and unwelcome incidents such as this one. Cricket, or any other sport, should be totally free of interference from political or religious beliefs, no matter how devoutly they are held. The new coach of Pakistan in particular, will soon discover how difficult it seems to be for his undoubtedly talented charges to concentrate on playing cricket without letting religious fervour, senior player politics or occasionally, pure petulance, get in the way of simply playing cricket.

I'm taking a risk here by commenting on your article because in media even negative coverage is considered positive. Firstly, I want to comment on the cricket analysis of your article which was barely 50% of the write-up, an inadequate percentage for an article thats supposed to be about a cricket match even by amateur standards. In your first paragraph you compared Dhoni to Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. This expert analysis was done based on a Twenty20 tournament. Need I say more? Then you suggested that Dhoni be made the Test captain based on his Twenty20 performance. I think this is an important point here. I whole-heartedly congratulate the Indian for playing well and winning the Twenty20 World Cup. But at the end of the day a 20/20 win just doesn't warrant the circus that the BCCI and the Indian media has created. Its fine to be celebrate this victory but to equate this with Test or even One-day cricket shows lack of cricketing knowledge. And we could see Dhoni's weaknesses as a captain in the first ODI against Australia. But I'm sure he will learn. Give him support without over-hyping him when he does well or burrying him when he does poorly. Now to focus on the issue of what Shoaib Malik said in his press conference. Again, the fact that you had two lines to say about his captaincy yet over two-three long paragraphs about his statement shows that you had little interest in covering the actual cricket itself. Again, I would ask you to use better judgement in this regard and consider that maybe his English isn't very good. The kind of man that Shoaib Malik is, he wouldn't discriminate based on religion or race infact he actually makes it a point to thank everyone for their support frequently in his press conferences. He even came out later and apologized for what he said when he didn't need to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Malik's words. But as Shane pointed out that you irresponsibly focused on the controversial aspect of the topic without even once considering the alternative. Just an added note, I'm a Pakistani Muslim currently in India and I watched the final with 7-8 Indians and applauded every moment of brilliance by both teams but ofcourse more passionately for the Pakistani team. Good luck on your writing career and hope to read better articles from you in the future as this one left a lot to be desired.

I agree with Mukul observation on the Pakistan captain. Whosoever wants to defend Shoaid for his wrong choice of words, is doing the same in vain? I dont know why its hard for some of the Pakistan fans to accept that what he said is wrong and should not have been said. Frankly, till that point of time I liked Shoaib. But his choice of words have really let him down. He should publicily apologise his statement for bringing religion into cricket. Cricket is a religion itself and it does not need any other religion to divide it.

I think there is an element of making more of someone's comments than one needs to. We need to be a bit more understanding when it comes to people and their actions and what they say, as well as understanding language differences and cultural differences. I think Malik's sentiments were that he wants to especially thank Muslims the world over (probably for support they have received) as well as other supporters (the part he didn't mention, but I believe he intended. Thats what I get by reading it). Its a bit like brits thanking british fans the world over. Lets not read anything negative into a positive comment that he made about thanking people. And we don't know the context of being Muslim. Comments here are by non-muslims, I have seen very few Muslims that agree that his comments were unwarranted, which raises the point that Cric info didn't work hard enough to get a balanced view on his comments, but instead went with the personal opinion of the writer an colleagues (very likely all non muslim). Maybe in Pakistan, his comments are viewed differntly, in which case that needs to be reflected in the article. Anyway, I am non Muslim and not Pakistani, so this is merely my opinion, from that standpoint.

thank u for your post Mukul Shoaib became very excited thats why he commented that way i should say first of all.secondly he cannot speak English fluently that might be another reason.third what he wanted to say to muslim communities all over the world would have told by him in diffrent way.finally take it easy because Shoaib sorryed for that incident and dont make mess with cricket,pleares,country and Islam or religion.thanks

"First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world." So he is thanking them for their prayers or their support - so what is it to you? He can thank whomsoever he wants to! It is not your concern. What do you know that he is thanking them for? HE could be thanking them for watching the Final of the 20/20 not necessarily supporting Pakistan. Anyway how does it impact upon your enjoyment of the cricket? These are words according to his personal sentiments and not something that you really can complain about.