Already, Pakistan?

Writing this down is probably the hardest thing in the world. Maybe a week or two weeks from now, it wouldn't have been this hard but I feel like this needs to be done now. Just a day ago, we were all so happy to see that Shahid Afridi cut out on main Shara-e-faisal but last night, after the biggest semi final any sports event has seen in recent times, its legs were cut off and later this afternoon, it disappreared altoghether. Now, I would like to believe here that this is not the attitude and thoughts of most Pakistanis; this absolutely must not be our take on what happened. 


Words cannot describe what the last month has been for me. I have felt so much in these 30 days. If something made me unhappy or upset or when I felt like there was absolutely no hope in anything else, I would think, "Yaar, cricket to hai na!" I knew I could switch on the tv at 2pm and watch cricket and forget about everything else. 


On a bigger level, have we ever seen our nation united about anything else like this before? Have you forgotten already how much we've enjoyed this tournament and how many memories the cricket team has created for us? The face paints, the sea of green on the streets, the jerseys, the naarey baazi, the patriotic quotes and facebook status updates, the match screenings,  the bhangra at every wicket taken by the Pakistani team, the green nail polish, the patriotic songs all of us hadn't transferred to our ipods and cell phones in a long time, the heavy discussions, predictions, opinions, the healthy competitve jokes with our Indian friends? I have enjoyed every bit of it. And for this, we have to thank the eleven men who made it happen. Let's face it, without cricket and the way the team performed, we wouldn't have had as much fun as we did during this time. They got this far when no one expected them to and for this, I still support Team Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.