Former Pakistan captain, Rashid Latif believes India’s victory in the Twenty20 World Cup final against Pakistan is solely due to the inspirational film, ‘Chak De India’.
Latif said it was no coincidence that Shahrukh Khan, the lead of the hit film based loosely on the exploits of the Indian womens hockey team, was present at the Wanderers to cheer the Indian team.
“This film I think had an inspirational effect on Indian sports. Their hockey team won the Asia Cup and now they have won the Twenty20 World Cup without their star players,” Latif said.
He said Shah Rukh’s presence at the stadium must have also lifted the Indian players to fight out of their skins to defend a small total.
In ‘Chak De India’, Shah Rukh played a hockey coach who turns a group of losers into a World Cup winning team.
“Such sport-oriented films inspire sportsmen to perform to an optimum level,” Latif added.
Latif, who is now Director sports of the Karachi Port Qasim Authority, said he had used the film to give a pep talk to his hockey team which, despite being without any star player, went onto win a major domestic title recently.
“I know such films work to inspire players.”
Latif also had lot of praise for batsman, Misbah-ul-Haq insisting he deserved to win the Man of the Series award instead of Shahid Afridi.
“He played outstanding cricket throughout the World Cup. He just made one error of judgement today that was to try to play the paddle shot against Joginder Sharma who does not have much pace. You try the paddle shot against bowlers who have some pace. But still he fought hard and deserves lot of credit.”
Latif rued Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi could not anchor the innings and said that was the turning point in the match.
“If one of them had stayed long enough, Pakistan would have won. The Indian total was not enough for the Wanderers pitch. But like I said, the Indians had got their inspiration from somewhere else.”
Former Pakistan captain, Javed Miandad said the result was fair as India was the better team.
“It is never easy to accept a defeat to India and that too in a final. But I think the Indians played more sensibly and R P Singh and Irfan Pathan bowled brilliantly today on a good batting track. They mixed up their deliveries very well.”
Miandad also advised the Pakistanis to not read too much into the Twenty20 World Cup performances and start planning differently for the Test series against South Africa and India.
“Twenty20 cricket is entertainment and a festival. It would be a mistake to take it seriously. The final is over and what is done is done. We just have to move on and get our act right now.” he said.
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