Pakistani cricketers have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons recently. Following the harsh criticism Pakistani cricket coach and former player Abdul Razzaq received for making disparaging remarks about Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her daughter, another video that has gone viral on social media features racist remarks made against West Indies cricket legend Vivian Richards in the presence of ex-cricketer and former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja.
The clip was from a cricket-based program broadcasted on Suno News in Pakistan. It showed two hosts, a male and a female, and two panellists including Ramiz Raja along with a pair of comedians one of whom was attempting to mimic the country’s journalist Hasan Nisar while the other was trying to imitate Lollywood actress Bushra Ansari.
When the female host asked the woman comic if she followed cricket or not, she answered, “I do watch cricket matches and my heart broke when Vivian Richards went into a relationship with Neena Gupta. I wrote a couplet then. “Jo ladkiyan khud ko kehti hain malika-e-aliya, Unko fir milta hai Mr Kaliya.” The lines roughly mean “the girls who consider themselves the queen, eventually end up with a black man.”
The hosts and the comics then laugh like idiots on the racist and stupid statement. One host says on the issue, “But this is old news”.
Notably, Pakistan TV shows are infamous for their offensive and outrageous content where celebrities particularly those from India are humiliated and mocked amidst the appreciation and loud cheer from the audience.
Holy Hell ladies and gentlemen.
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) November 14, 2023
Look at the kind of discourse in a Pakistani news channel about Vivian Richards and Neena Gupta
And this clown Ramiz Raja @iramizraja is shamelessly laughing like an idiot over this pic.twitter.com/45aBz5rje4
Abdul Razzaq apologised and claimed that his “tongue slipped” after his comment where he drew a shocking parallel between marrying Aishwarya Rai and the Pakistan Cricket Board drew intense backlash recently. He charged, “I’m talking about their (PCB’s) intention here. When I was playing, I knew that my captain, Younis Khan’s intentions were good. I took confidence and courage from that, and thanks to Allah, I could deliver for Pakistan cricket.”
He added, “Right now, a lot of talk here is surrounding the Pakistan team and the players’ performances in the World Cup. I think we do not have the intention to polish and develop the players. If you think that I will get married to Aishwarya Rai and then have good and virtuous kids, then that can never happen. So you have to correct your intentions first.” Meanwhile, other Pakistan cricketers including Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul were amusing themselves with his offensive words.
Abdul Razzaq was witnessed boasting about his multiple extramarital affairs on a TV show in another viral footage. “All my relations have been from both sides. It is not like only I proposed. I had five or six affairs. Such relationships come with validity. They expire after a year or two. It feels amazing in the beginning, but the results are not great.” When asked whether it was before he tied the knot, he very smoothly answered, “Even after the marriage,” to an applauding audience.
This adulterer Abdul Razzaq giving gyaan on morals and values, this can only happen in Pakistan. Here again the question arises: how does one country produce so many r*ct*ms? #AbdulRazzaq pic.twitter.com/9PHLQksNA3
— Amber Zaidi ?? (@Amberological) November 14, 2023
Nenna Gupta was in a relationship with former West Indies cricketer Vivian Richards in the late 1980s. Though they never married, they have a daughter named Masaba Gupta born in 1989 who is a successful fashion designer and has her own brand of apparel and cosmetics.
