Another Biased Report: Times, UK

Another biased report in TIMES UK. 50 people turned up at the Airport. Why dont they report that Pak's population is 150 Million.



March 29, 2007

Pakistan’s World Cup failures weighed down by extra baggage on their return

Owen Slot in Islamabad


Islamabad International Airport, 2.30am yesterday. To call it an air of excitement would be an overstatement, because some of the attendant 14 media representatives had been there for up to four hours. But, like their colleagues standing outside the international arrivals halls at airports in Karachi and Lahore, they had been staking out returning World Cup cricketers and finally they were on to the scent.

Flight EK614 was in from Dubai and information had it that one green Pakistan team cricket bag had been seen on the baggage carousel.

Twelve days after their defeat by Ireland and the subsequent murder of their coach, Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan team were at last coming home. The arrival of each one of them was a news item in itself, so much so that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) approached the players’ return with a policy of misinformation. It split them up, had them arriving at different places at different times, and lied about who would pitch up where.

If this seemed excessive, the news pictures of Younis Khan that day were justification on their own. Mohammad Yousuf had got through almost unnoticed with a scarf around his head, but Younis was a sitting duck. Hordes of media pounced and the commotion attracted members of the public, who jostled angrily until a security guard appeared at the batsman’s side. “Bring a donkey for him and ask him to sit on it and roam him around the city,” one punter shouted.

So even at 2.30am, the arrival from flight EK614 was not surprised to find an enthusiastic reception. This was Yasir Arafat, who had not played in any of his country’s three matches and is about as low-profile as they come. He was smiling determinedly and, as onlookers gathered round his trolley, repeated the mantra that he had been instructed not to say a word to anyone.

By the time he had reached his white Honda Civic, a crowd of about 50 had assembled as he and his brother stared at the open boot and discussed his three suitcases and the best packing formation. He then hopped behind the wheel and departed. And you wondered, as many have on news and radio programmes, what it would have been like if Woolmer was alive. Because this was the country showing a sensitive approach.

Before Pakistan’s World Cup campaign had been transformed from a case of underperformance to one of murder, the public were openly talking of attending the team’s return with sticks. On Geo TV, the biggest Urdu television station, a survey found that 39 per cent wanted the team banned from the game; 57 per cent were more reasonable and merely suggested heavy fines.

But now is a time for comparative indifference. Newspapers continue the debate, but the television programmes and advertisement hoardings that had been so ubiquitous have been pulled. You can still see 50-foot images of Wasim Akram holding a Pepsi can, but Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis and Kamran Akmal have been removed.

Astronomic figures are being reported here, but no one can genuinely say how much revenue has been lost from this World Cup campaign. A small indicator is that when Pepsi shot its preWorld Cup TV advertisement in Kuala Lumpur with Inzamam, Younis and Shoaib Akhtar — who did not even make the trip because, officially at least, he was injured — Inzamam alone was paid £41,500.

On the gambling issue, the prevailing view is that, whatever the reasons behind Woolmer’s death, bookmakers did not play a part in the defeats that preceded it. This is the view of Rashid Latif, the former captain, who has been the whistleblower-in-chief over corruption. It is backed up by the fact that the players were each on a £50,000 bonus to win the tournament, which has to be some incentive even if you can make almost as much from shooting a fizzy-drink advert.

The fundamentalist nature of the players’ religion is also viewed as a factor — that Islam had kept the bookies away. But the same religion is also attracting much of the blame.

After the Ireland defeat, the Dawn newspaper ran a front-page picture of Inzamam with the caption: “Was this also the will of Allah?” Likewise, Aaj Television ran a comedy sketch of a quiz show in which the answer to the question, “Which sport has been most damaged by religion?” was: “Cricket”.

Such slurs were taken even farther in Islamabad on Tuesday when Naseem Ashraf, the PCB chairman, appeared before a committee of inquiry into the World Cup fiasco and suggested that the heavy fundamentalism of Inzamam and the team’s leaders was imposed counter-productively on the younger members.

Woolmer always spoke positively of the impact of religion on the team. The question being asked here, though, is whether peace of mind through Islam delivers the ideal battling mentality on a cricket pitch.

But, as the investigation in Jamaica is finding, answers are hard to come by. The crowds at Karachi airport thought that they had one yesterday when they spotted Shahid Afridi arriving and chanted: “Go to hell!” Like all his teammates, all he wants is to go home.

religion had nothing to do with it... if it was Allah's will then it was right... we deserve it.
Everybody knows that UK media is controlled by corrupt people... how can they judge what happens to Pakis...