Pakistani fans.
Pakistan is a Muslim country and, despite extremists there actually trying to kill our cricket team once, a lot of Sri Lankan Muslims support them. But against our own team? I would think not really. However, HalaalSL tweeted “Muslims are requested to avoid deliberate support/overjoy in today’s match arousing the feeling of hatred among our Sri Lankan brothers-ACJU”. As in, I think, don’t support Sri Lanka too much, because other Sri Lankan Muslims might be supporting Pakistan.
Which is fine. I know a Sri Lankan who supported Australia which I found sacrilegious, but anything else is, I suppose, a matter of choice. It’s a bit odd, I mean, I think Prabhakaran even supported Sri Lanka during the cricket. It’s interesting that Pakistan, as a Muslim country, would inspire competitive sympathies to Sri Lanka, a secular one which includes Muslims.
No they do not have to support a team that the rest of the country supports. But by not doing so and actively supporting a team such as Pakistan over Sri Lanka they invite suspicion and questions of loyalty.
Alrighty. Wht do you mean by “team such as Pakistan”?
Alrighty.
What do you mean by “team such as Pakistan”?
Do you mean supporting a team besides Sri Lanka is acceptable, if it is not Pakistan?
that’s exactly what it meant. because you can’t force a person to like something else. that seems to be the most logical option.
Pakistan is a an avowedly Muslim state and some of the articles I’ve read report their SL Muslim supporters as saying that they support the Pakistan team because they are Muslim. To non-Muslim Sri Lankans it may appear as if SL Muslims place their loyalty to other Muslims over and above Sri Lanka and other non-Muslim Sri Lankans.
daamn..i was expecting you to say something totally different lol
So, it’s essentially a question of their patriotism (“loyalty to Sri Lanka”) that we have here.
I’ll leave the religion part aside for a while, because that has been debated above, inconclusively though.
One question that arises immediately is, how do you think this position reflects on Sri Lankan cricket players who play for foreign leagues, while having not been available for the Sri Lankan national team at that given time?
Yes it is essentially a question of their patriotism. It does not help their cause in Sri Lanka as they will be portrayed not as sons of the soil but as turncoats who give their loyalty to an outside entity.
The same issues have already arisen with SL cricket players – look at Malinga for example. There are plenty of people who believe he plays for money and not for country.
The cricketers are all professionals so they play for money. Some tend to be a bit more mercenary than others but it is more a difference of degree than kind.
Patriotism – that is a difficult concept. If a cricketer who plays for the country is a patriot, what about the ordinary citizen of no outstanding ability who just lives a decent life? Is he not a patriot too? What of the greedy politician who is busy swindling public money? He constantly claims to be a patriot, but is he?