As soon as the match was lost, Pakistan TV began playing mournful sitar tunes – the way that one might on the death of a great leader. Fans were reported to have died of heart attacks. A college student emptied a Kalashnikov into his television set. There was particular unrest in Lahore, which had been eagerly expecting to host us in the final. I was being execrated by politicians. I was being burned in effigy. Posters of me were being defaced. My mother received threatening telephone calls. My home in Model Town was pelted with stones, and I was sued by a neighbour for ‘criminal negligence’.
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