Daily Times

I have always known for a fact that there is a great number of Pakistanis living here in the UAE, but it wasn’t until last week; I realised it on the final day of the Pakistan Super League-PSL. As far as my sight could go, I saw scores of men wearing Shalwar Kameez walking towards the stadium with a wide smile on their faces. Women, children, elderly and youngsters – all wearing different jerseys to support their respective teams but chanting a single slogan, Pakistan Zindabad!

I sat on the bench, eagerly waiting for the match to begin. Beside me came and sat a Pathan in his mid-30s, who constantly offered to buy a cup of tea for my father who accompanied me. It was a great ambience – patriotic songs echoing in a stadium filled with 25,000 spectators and Pakistani flags being raised all over the place. Time passed by and finally the wait was over.

While everyone’s eyes were fixed on the ground, I couldn’t help but notice the Pathan’s frustration beside me who was constantly into his phone. Suddenly, his phone rang and he started speaking in Urdu with that pure Pashto accent, of course. “Look brother, your work will be done very soon. Right now I have come to watch the match for which I have been saving for weeks,” he said. And that’s when something clicked my mind.

I started wondering the passion for cricket Pakistanis have within them. So passionate that people who cannot possibly afford to visit the stadium have to save up that little amount of money just because they want to witness history in the making; domestic cricket taking place on international grounds.

I looked around and all I could notice was people loaded with happiness, who had forgotten about their troubles and sorrows because they were too indulged in being proud of the teams and of their country playing right in front of their eyes.

That’s when I realised the power of cricket – it makes people like us feel home when we’re so far away from it. Our songs, our team, our flag, our people – PSL was something we all had been waiting for a very long time. It pumped up the patriotism in each and every Pakistani and brought us together on one common ground.

Here’s hoping that Pakistan performs well in the ongoing Asia Cup as well, so that once again Pakistanis can forget all the negatives and rejoice in the name of cricket.

The blogger is a Dubai-based content writer who is passionate about women’s rights and education. She tweets @MariaHussain5