Following the victory of India against Afghanistan by a margin of 66 runs in the group stage match of T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistani cricket fans tried to sour India’s celebrations. They alleged that the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) fixed the match in its favour and that Afghan players complied with such wrongdoing for lucrative IPL contracts.
Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bowl first. With a strong partnership at the very onset, India managed to post a mammoth score of 210 runs on the scoreboard in 20 overs. In reply, Afghanistan could only score 144 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Soon after, Pakistanis began peddling conspiracy theories to tarnish the credibility of the Indian team.
Hans Masroor Badvi, a network security professional, claimed that the match between India and Afghanistan was fixed to ensure the place of Afghan players in the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). “Everyone knows this is completely a fixed match to fix India in WCT20 and Fix Afghanistan Players in IPL. Such a shame. #INDvsAFG,” he wrote.
Arfa Feroz Zake, a Pakistani journalist, also tried to peddle conspiracy theories. He alleged, “You really think KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma scored massive partnership on merit? You really think Afghanistan played as per their strength ie spinners? Wasn’t fielding dramatic?” The journalist also claimed that the casual chat between the skippers of both the teams during the toss was ‘fishy’, suggesting that the alleged ‘fixing plan’ must have been made at that point in time.
Another Pakistani journalist tried to cast aspersions about the integrity of the Indian cricket team. “India deliberately lost to England in World Cup 2019 & prevented #Pakistan from reaching the semi-finals. Today Afghanistan is deliberately losing to India in a fixed match to help them reaching the semifinals. It is always India who fixes sports,” wrote Umer Inam.
Another Pakistani shared a clip of a misfielding by an Afghan cricketer to claim that BCCI had fixed the India Vs Afghanistan match.
Fixed match between India and Afghanistan #RashidKhan pic.twitter.com/cbGSf4xDoH
— Malik🇵🇰 (@Advoca_te) November 3, 2021
Popular Twitter user Zaid Ali claimed, “Well paid India!! Oh sorry, I mean well played*!”
It must be mentioned that Pakistan has qualified for the semi-finals while India’s hopes rest on the loss of New Zealand against Nambia or Afghanistan.
