A tweet by the World cup organizers on the official ICC twitter page went viral on Sunday during the South Africa-Pakistan encounter at Lord's. The ICC tweeted a picture with three particular Asian fans in focus, two of them sporting Pakistan jerseys and the other in an Indian jersey, cheering in between them. The picture had the man in Indian colours, holding onto a placard that read, “Neighbours' Support!-Come on Pakistan”.
#SpiritOfCricket 👏 #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/CKgnDEAWBF
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 23, 2019
The picture, tweeted by the organizers with the hashtag #SpiritofCricket, kick-started a cloud of raucous chatter on social media, as more than 2000 users took to express their views on the platform. The picture's hashtag seemed redundant to fans, as the conversations online were a mixture of memes and jibes that denounced any sportsmanship in the picture.
For example, most comments were on the lady in the photo. Prompting one user to reply:
#SpiritOfCricket #WTF!!
— Sonali Sharma (@imSonaliS) June 23, 2019
it's all about the beautiful lady. Indian Men & Indian Girls can support Pakistan for their lovers but viceversa is never possible.
Have you ever seen @realshoaibmalik supporting India? No!!
But you would have seen @MirzaSania supporting Pak many times. pic.twitter.com/jK36jDPJPt
With 1,606 re-tweets and a whopping 13,928 likes not too long after the picture was posted, the tweet was easily one of the most talked about images of the day. Some tweets, however, warned the man in the India jersey about his safety.
Good gesture & must be appreciated.
— Abdullah Malik (@Abdulla50709695) June 23, 2019
But this Indian guy goes to India I believe Hindu extremists will harm him.
The image and the camaraderie that was built around it reflects a positive sign. Indian fans recently also warmed heartstrings when they took the side of Pakistani skipper Sarfaraz Khan after he was insulted by an angry Pakistani fan in a shopping mall while out with his son.
With India-Pakistan relations at a low in recent times some tweets even went on to evoke India's 'nationalist sentiments', “Pakistan has no culture and History Its culture and History is totally derived from the Hindustan... It is true Even, You also know it.. “.
There are however no reports that can confirm that the man in the Indian jersey was actually an Indian citizen and not a possible actor who decided to endorse some cross-border unity. Nevertheless, it seems that the cricket fans following the arch-rivals this world cup are hooked onto social media, as the twitter wars that engulfed the platform during India-Pakistan encounter last week roared back to life from its dormancy with just one neutral ICC tweet.
