AHMEDABAD: Indian cricket fans could not swallow their team’s defeat to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final on Sunday as they agitated by burning posters of Indian players and breaking TV sets on city streets across India.

As soon as India lost the match, large protests were witnessed across India, especially in the cities of Kanpur and Haridwar. Fans turned out to be furious and expressed their anger on roads by chanting slogans, burning their players’ effigies and breaking TV sets.

On the other hand, high security was deployed outside the house of former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Ranchi.

It was surprising to see that fans reacted in that manner as India was the defending champion and played considerably well in the tournament and reached the final.—

In Kanpur, denizens of the industrial city burnt the posters of Indian cricket team after team India lost the final to Pakistan.

The protesters thronged the roads and burnt the posters and effigies of players. The protesters also raised slogans against the players and team India. Besides burning the posters of Virat Kohli, R. Ashwin and Indian cricket team, it was also reported that in a few places in South Kanpur, the agitated cricket lovers even broke television sets.

People of South Kanpur who burnt the posters and effigies of the players said that they could have digested the defeat of team India if it was any other country but losing to arch rival Pakistan has brought huge disappointment to them.

“When they (Indian team) had won the toss, why they did not opt to bat first?” questioned Ankit Singh, an angry cricket lover. “Chasing 300 plus has always been a challenging task for any team, when our batting was strong why Kohli hadn’t batted first and put Pakistan under pressure”, he asked.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2017