I don’t know how many of you slept the night Pakistan lost the World Cup semi-final but I couldn’t.

Not cuz we lost... not at all! I rather feel sad for the boys who fought WARS in those fields in past few weeks. Not just in cricketing terms. But they fought discrimination. They fought isolation. They fought tyranny. They fought condescension. They fought for our bragging rights, they fought for our honour.

And what a fight they have put up!! They have rekindled the hopes of 220 million Pakistanis. They have shown us that there is light at the end of this dark tunnel.

The battle is lost the other night but these young cricketing giants have won the war! They have put Pakistan at high table of cricketing body-politic once again. They have put us right back on the cricketing map.

And for the first time in DECADES, teams once again fear playing against the Pakistan Cricket Team. They fear the next big king of swing and consummate ease with which he dispatched the best batters. They fear the grit and will shown by a 40 year old man to dive at the boundary just to save two runs. They fear the cast iron nerves of a man who was hospitalized less than 24 hours ago but came on to hit the best bowlers in the world all over the place. They fear the fact that the BEST batter in the world is only 27 years old and will haunt the cricketing world for YEARS to come! They fear us! And this young team, these wounded tigers have made it possible! 

I feel so proud of each and every one of these titans. Mulk ki laaj rukh li inho nay. They are the people’s champs. and the future appears to be bright once again. 

Thank you Team Green. Thank you for making this journey so special! 

Stand up... for the people’s champions! 

The author of this Facebook post is Farooq – a businessman, resident of Fizaiya Colony, Islamabad