From hero to zero in two hours (22 June 1999)

22 June 1999

From hero to zero in two hours

Latafat Ali Siddiqui

Toronto, June 21: Cheers turned into tears here as hot favourites Pakistanis suffered a humiliating eight-wicket defeat in the World Cup final, with a local trader suffering a loss of nearly 5,000 dollars which he spent on Pakistani big and miniature flags and large-size coloured portraits of ace opener Saeed Anwar and pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar.

"The defeat was a nightmare for me. It's really amazing. Pakistan's wickets fell like nine pins," said Saleem Ahmed, who had set up a stall here to sell flags and posters of the cricketers before the start of the planned victory procession.

Over 500 enthusiastic Pakistani youths were set to celebrate the expected win of their country in the June 20 World Cup finale, and scores of vehicles, including ten brand new jeeps and eight vans, were tastefully decorated with Pakistani flags and photographs of their cricket heroes.

According to the plan announced a day before the final, the victory procession was to start moving from Toronto's famous Grerard Street at 6 pm on Sunday and was to parade through Greenwood and Coxwell streets. Pakistani traders and businessmen had planned to distribute sweetmeat in large quantity on the occasion.

"I never thought that Pakistan could lose. They were favourites, rather hot favourites to win the cup. They played so well in the semi-final against New Zealand, and on the contrary they did not even fight on the D-Day against Aussies," said Saleem adding: "Nobody is now buying my flags or posters. Look, the entire Gerrard Street is empty. I do not find any Pakistani here."

Another Pakistani Canadian, Iqbal Ahmed, a distributor of ethnic newspapers of Toronto was shocked and found it difficult to believe that a team comprising world class batsmen and bowlers would ever suffer such a humiliating defeat.

"It's really difficult for me to swallow the defeat," he said. "My son Sohail Iqbal did not open his computer shop in Richmond Hill to see the exciting final which turned out to be a one-sided affair," he added.

Babra Feroz, an 11th class student of Broadview School, described the tale of the Pakistan team members in one sentence: "From hero to zero in less than two hours."

A cinema house at the Albion Road had made arrangements to show live the proceedings of the World Cup final on its big screen and its all 430 seats were sold two days before the final. The cricket fans drove to the cinema hall as early as four in the morning. The match started at 5.30 am local time.

Most of the cricket lovers left the cinema hall in utter frustration after Pakistanis slumped to 132, all out, in only 39 overs. "Shame, shame," shouted one fan.

Source :: The Dawn (www.dawn.com)