Pakistan cricket: A yawn, a night out and a clarification

The Pakistan cricket team has come under fire after a video emerged of the Men in Green supposedly partying the night before their 89-run loss to India in the ongoing ICC World Cup on Sunday.

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The video, which shows Shoaib Malik as well as his Indian tennis star wife Sania Mirza, along with Wahab Riaz and Imam-ul-Haq, started doing the rounds of social media leading to questions being asked about the team’s professionalism.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Cricket Board has however issued a clarification on the video saying, “The video under discussion was of two days back. On the night before the match, all the players were in their rooms before curfew time.”

Sania Mirza tweeted her disgust at someone recording the video, saying that it was an invasion of privacy.

She subsequently also got into a bit of a Twitter spat with Pakistani actress Veena Malik, who criticised the Grand Slam winner for taking her young child out at night.

Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed has already faced a lot of criticism and has been the topic of many jokes after a picture of him yawning on the field during the India-Pakistan clash went viral.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board had also earlier been criticised by some former players for allowing the players’ families to stay with them in Manchester ahead of the clash against India.

Former captain Mohammad Yousuf had said, “I was part of the 1999, 2003 and 2007 World Cups but the board never allowed players to have their families with them during the tournament… the World Cup is high-pressure event and players need to just be focussed on cricket and reaching the final.”