WHAT WAS THE POINT?

"First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world."

Thus spake Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik after losing to India at the Twenty20 final, adding he was sorry he had let them down.

Malik's let down Muslims all over the world? He's let down India's man-of-the-match Irfan Pathan and his brother Yusuf? Are Muslims all over the world one homogeneous entity? Forget different countries, is a Malayali Muslim and a Bengali Muslim the same?

The new skipper may have been playing to the gallery, a naive bid to stem any possible resentment back home. But it's shocking that his defence mechanism was irrelevant pan-Islamic rhetoric.

Would have liked to remember this Pakistan side as a younger, hungrier lot with nothing to lose and not carrying forward religious baggage of the Inzamam days, the last phase of which seemed to have more of prayers than practice.

I for one had enjoyed as a cricket fan the impetuosity of an Imran Nazir, the poise of Shoaib Malik the batsman and the long handle of Misbah, as well as the wicket-taking skills of Asif, Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir. Relished it, as Pakistan overturned the form book to enter the final. And yes, there is a tinge of disappointment that Pakistan lost.

But going by Shoaib Malik, there is no space for disappointment if you are not a Muslim. Saddening.