After England skipper Alastair Cook expressed his dissatisfaction at the manner of the Pakistan team’s celebrations after their 75-run victory over the hosts on Sunday, another English cricketer in Tim Bresnan has also joined in saying that the exuberant celebrations might come back to haunt the visitors later on in the series.
The first match of the four-Test series between England and Pakistan had the cricket world’s eye hooked on to it as the match was set to be Pakistani left-arm seamer Mohammad Amir’s first appearance in the longer format of the game since the 2010 Test at the iconic venue which later became the epicentre of the infamous spot-fixing scandal.
With England coming off the back of successive series wins over South Africa away and later against Sri Lanka on their home turf, Alastair Cook’s were considered slight favourites for the tie, despite Amir’s comeback. However, it was Pakistan who took a 1-0 lead in the series with leg-spinner Yasir Shah claiming the Man-of-the-Match award for his ten-wicket haul while skipper Misbah-ul-Haq played his part as well smashing a brilliant century in the first innings that helped Pakistan gain a decisive lead.
Right after reaching his three-figure mark, Misbah-ul-Haq flung himself to the ground and did a series of push-ups in what was a remarkable piece of celebration. Speaking at the end of the day’s play, Misbah said that the celebrations were a tribute to the Pakistan army with whom the men’s cricket team shared a boot camp prior to their departure for England.
If it was just Misbah on Day one, the entire Pakistan team, led by veteran batsman Younis Khan, resorted to the unique celebrations followed by a military-style salute as they dedicated the victory to their soldiers. While the scenes drew mostly applause from the Lord’s crowd as well as cricket fans around the world as it seemed to signal a never-before-seen unity in the Pakistan dressing room, opposition skipper Alastair Cook sounded not so pleased at what he saw.
“You don’t take any offence, but certainly at that emotive time, it’s not pleasant viewing,” Cook said. “Certainly, when you’ve lost a game of cricket for the first 20 minutes or so it’s not pleasant. They (Pakistan) are entitled to do what they want. It’s united them and shows what a challenge we’ve got.”
Joining in with his national skipper, 31-year-old fast bowler Tim Bresnan, made a gentle reminder to the visitors that it was not necessarily a good thing to celebrate on a grand scale and it may come back to haunt them in the future. Bresnan, in fact, made reference to the English side which had celebrated with a sprinkler after clinching the 2010-11 Ashes series Down Under only to end up being whitewashed 5-0 next time around in 2013-14.
Bresnan made his point through his Twitter post which has gone on to become an instant hit in just a few hours.
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