On Monday (2 October), Zainab Abbas, a Pakistani cricket presenter expressed her excitement to host the upcoming Cricket World Cup in India. Reportedly, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has picked her to be a presenter for the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 which will commence on the 5th of October in Ahmedabad. However, she quickly became the centre of a social media storm because of her controversial past tweets.
Apparently, her old tweets are doing rounds on social media in which she had written deplorable things about India and Hindus. In several of her past tweets, the Pakistani presenter Abbas had mocked India and Hindus telling them to eat meat and using phrases like ‘stinking cow piss’ to describe India. Notably, Pakistan has been notorious for using such slurs to derange Indians as meek Hindus who are afraid of their ‘martial race’.
In one of these old tweets, she ranted, “This 120 crore population can’t produce one fast bowler. Eat some f*c*ing meat u shud shakaharis.”
In another tweet, she used the cow piss jibe to target Indians, particularly Hindus. She wrote, “..true it does Man went Delhi and it smells of cow piss. Oops, that’s their maa Kaali maa.”
She has however deleted these tweets now and even changed her handle several years ago. However, an analysis of her old Twitter handle (zainablovessrk) and its interaction clearly reveals that the same handle has now been changed to ZAbbasOfficial, current X (formerly Twitter) account of Zainab Abbas.
Now that the ICC Men’s World Cup is being hosted in India, she finds it intriguing that India and Pakistan share many cultural similarities, more than differences. Having gotten an opportunity to earn a fortune in India, the Pakistani presenter claimed that she is feeling humbled to host the ICC event in India.
She wrote, “There was always intrigue on what lies on the other side, more cultural similarities than differences, rivals on the field but camaraderie off the field, the same language & love for art & a country with a billion people, here to represent, to create content & bring in expertise from the best in the business. Humbled to be presenting in India at the Cricket WC2023 for the ICC again, a journey away from home of 6 weeks starts now.”
When her old tweets surfaced online, social media users highlighted how so-called Pakistani celebrities spew venom against India in their homeland but sing different tones altogether to keep enjoying earning opportunities in India.