are we winners or losers?
The match yesterday was simply fantastic and seated somewhere in the Imran Khan stand, I rose along with the thousands of Pakistanis to shout and scream and celebrate the fall of the last wicket. As “aye-o, aye-o”, the anthem of the match started up again, signalling the win and triumph, hundreds of plastic bottles, empty and full, came hurling through the air, hitting unsuspecting people on the head, on the back, showering them with mirinda, pepsi and other sponsored beverages.
As the music rose higher, so did the jungle behaviour and all manner of rubbish, food, bottles, 4’s and 6’s started flying hitting people who were merely standing to catch a glimpse of the team walking off the field. A moment of victory(which we all were trying to enjoy) turned sour so easily with the rowdy ridiculous behaviour that the amused policemen just stood and observed. We turned out to see a well dressed young woman throw a full bottle of Pepsi in the air and then laugh unabashedly when it hit someone and sprayed the drink over several others. Little children followed the grown-ups, examples happily, of course and soon there was just the bad taste of the spectators to take back with us.
A few suggestions to whoever is in the place to do something about it.
1. Please position policemen who are interested in controlling more than just the random fight. Actual policemen who are interested in the fact that everyone gets to enjoy the game equally. It’s not that hard.
2. When you say no cigarettes and lighters, please then, confiscate the ones you see. Not join them in for a smoke.
3. It’s very easy to ask people to clean up the area around them. All the food companies who provided us with pizza, shawermas, drinks and the 4’s and 6’s could have well put no littering signs on them too or given trash bags to do the needful. Someone has to take ownership somewhere.
4. Bathrooms can be maintained. It is not a miracle. Just put a person there who is responsible for making sure that whoever uses it uses it like a human being.
We don’t try to improve things because we think that it’s a losing battle. We don’t want to set examples because we feel “the masses” won’t learn. We aren’t part of the solution. We are part of the problem and until we realize that, I’m afraid no matter how many times we win, I’m going to go away feeling like a loser
I couldn’t agree more with Jammie here. Being one of her fellow spectators, it was a little sad to see the current state of affairs at the National Stadium. Then we wonder why more matches aren’t held in our great metropolis…
Jammie – I too was in the Imran Khan enclosure, stood till the final ball and made a beeline with the entire family the moment the bottle fireworks started, I had sensed possible tensions. I feel sorry that your upbeat day end at a low.
Yes we need to improve and there should be a proactive attitude as you have suggested. I feel all your recomendations are well recieved and maybe the Pak-India one-day in Feb can be better managed and a few items improved.
i had to duck to avoid a biryani packet from hitting me. the pak-india match last year was better organized than this one.
i had to duck to avoid a biryani packet from hitting me. the pak-india match last year was better organized than this one.
yea its sad when people lose it at the end after keeping up such a nice attitude during the whole time.
But I doubt providing trash bags or no littering signs would help, next time you would c bags full of trash flying around. (keep collecting them I guess, in order to avoid any disaster). But please dont take away bottles they add so much to the environment(not throwing at people part) I meant the sound.
We sure can set an example but I guess authorities need to play a major roll in this. Yea we need to be a lot more proactive as a nation :).
Khalid: I dont agree this is not the reason of matches not taking place in karachi.
well i agree 200% wht is goin on there in this topic,i m a newcomer in such posts bt could’t just helped coz i was the one who got a nasty hit on my head and from then i saw 3 ramez raja along with a military of police
so pls ppl take care of it……
jammie ,excellent article!i just hope somewhere,sometime,somehow our nation learns how to behave,huh.i can almost feel how disappointing/upsetting it must have been for u to see all this rowdiness going around.and all the excitement of winning must have been marred by the ppl who dont even know what civic sense is, to begin with..alas! iam sorry to say this is the tragedy of being a pakistani and living in pakistan…i hope we all learn soon and this article of urs makes a difference!