Media celebrate the return of cricket on Pakistani soil

5^th March, 2017 was the day every Pakistani cricket fan have been wishing for in their prayers since many long years. The day marked the Pakistan Super League final where Peshawar Zalmi emerged victorious over Quetta Gladiators by 58 runs to win the second edition of the tournament.

The significance of the day was that the country of Pakistan successfully completed a tournament of cricket at such a grand scale for the first time since the horrific terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009. Overshadowing the victory of the entire Zalmi team it was a win for the game of cricket, the fans, the passion, over terrorism and violence which has been ruling the nation for long.

Not only the fear of terrorist attacks, but the final saw a handful of other problems too, that include match-fixing allegations, setting up securities and quite a few foreign players backing out from the final match. But still, the undying passion was visible among the Pakistani mass as tickets were sold like anything. The Gaddafi saw a large crowd of 22,000 people turning out for the love of cricket to cheer for their favourite teams in the final.

Despite the backing out of players like Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright, Nathan MacCullum, Tymal Mills and a few others Gladiators got backup from other foreigners like Elton Chigumbura, Morne Van Wyk, Sean Ervine, Rayad Emrit and Anamul Haque.

Whereas Zalmi players like Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels and Chris Jordan made cricket the winner by being a part of the final. Darren Sammy won the hearts as he answered Ramiz Raja’s question of why he chose to play the final in style. He said “My good friend Lala Afridi (Shahid Afridi) told me, ‘Bro, if we reach the final you should come to Lahore. It will be good for me and good for the country.’ It is important that cricket is the winner in the end.”

The final started with Peshawar Zalmi setting a target of 148, Kamran Akmal being the highest scorer with 40 runs. The Peshawar bowlers were also spot on as they wrapped up the Quetta Gladiators for 90 odd runs. Skipper Darren Sammy bagged the Man Of the Match trophy because of his brilliant 28 of just 11 runs.

The Pakistan media were euphoric as cricket returned to home soil after 7 years of the tragedy that took place surrounding the Sri Lankans.