The Pakistan-West Indies T20 series was expected to draw huge crowds to the National Stadium in Karachi, given the Men in Green’s impressive T20 World Cup campaign and recent whitewash of Bangladesh in a Test and T20 series.
However, former captains Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram were disappointed to see empty stands in the first two T20 matches of the series.
Videos of fans being made to wait outside the stadium for a couple of hours started doing the rounds on the internet, with many calling out organizers for making life difficult for fans who paid their hard-earned money to watch a game of cricket.
Many took the sight of empty stadiums in their stride, sharing memes on micro-blogging site Twitter to take a dig at the situation.
Twitter account @Aquidtweets thinks the National Stadium was no less deserted on the days the matches were played than deserts and oceans.
Places where you can hardly see any human being #pakvsWi pic.twitter.com/7YEQd50hWp
— عاقد (@aquidtweets) December 14, 2021
Another Twitter user compared the crowds at the National Stadium in Karachi to one in Faisalabad, where thousands showed up to cheer their teams for a league match.
International match Domestic match
— Mian Omer🇵🇰 (@Iam_Mian) December 13, 2021
Empty stadium in Full crowd
Karachi #pakvsWi in Faislabad pic.twitter.com/18HEAD2nuQ
One person drove Twitter into hysterics by sharing the scene from a popular movie to take a dig at the Karachi crowd for not showing up in huge numbers for the matches.
Karachities when someone asks them to fulfil the stadium #pakvsWi pic.twitter.com/STsiDOKAv2
— Tahreem🌸 (@tweetsbytahreem) December 13, 2021
Babar Ali thought the city is “still in lockdown”.
https://twitter.com/aly_b7/status/1470388253706575874/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1470388253706575874%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geo.tv%2Flatest%2F387960-pak-vs-wi-karachis-empty-stadium-triggers-memes-on-social-media
Another person thought Savour Foods in Rawalpindi can attract a larger crowd than an international match in Karachi.
#pakvsWi
— Chaudhary Musa Hafeez 🇵🇰 (@Chmusa143) December 15, 2021
#karachi
Empty stadium wasn't a great sight. pic.twitter.com/tzBychmRhG
West Indies tour hangs in the balance as five more from squad test COVID-19 positive
Hours ahead of the third and final T20I match between Pakistan and West Indies that is set to take place at Karachi’s National Stadium today (December 16), five more West Indian players and support staff tested positive for COVID-19, Cricket West Indies confirmed in a statement Thursday morning.
“Three players: wicketkeeper/batsman Shai Hope, left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein, allrounder Justin Greaves; along with Assistant Coach Roddy Estwick, and Team Physician Dr. Akshai Mansingh returned positive results in the latest round of testing carried out by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB),” the statement said.
All three players will therefore miss the upcoming matches and all five individuals will remain isolated from the rest of the West Indies squad and are now under the care and supervision provided by the medical officials, the WI Cricket statement read.
They will remain in isolation for 10 days or until they return negative PCR test results.
With a total of six players now ruled out of the tour due to COVID-19 and a finger injury to Devon Thomas (sustained in the 1st T20I), CWI and PCB Officials will be meeting Thursday morning, once all members of the touring party have been tested again, to determine whether the tour can continue.
