World champions return home amid tight security

LAHORE: Hundreds of fans waiting for the return of the Twenty20 World Cup-winning Pakistan team at Lahore Airport were left disappointed in the early hours of Tuesday after security officials bypassed the well wishers and whisked the squad away from another terminal.

‘We changed the (travel) plan due to security reasons and drove players and team officials in a bus to the National Cricket Academy,’ police official Umar Virk told media, who did not mention any specific threat to the team.

Fans started to gather at the airport hours ahead of the 3:30 a.m. arrival time after watching Pakistan win the inaugural T20 World Cup by eight wickets over Sri Lanka in the final at Lord’s on Monday.

The excited fans – mostly youngsters – danced to the beat of drums and chanted slogans ‘Pakistan zindabad’ (long live Pakistan) before they realised the cricketers had already left from another terminal.

‘Our hearts are broken as we could not greet our heroes,’ 20-year-old Danish Shams said.

‘We came here only to have a glimpse of them, but now the police officials are saying that they (players) have already left in a bus.’

Zeeshan Qaiser, another fan said he was ‘deeply hurt’ after not getting to welcome of any of the Pakistan team.

‘Not only me, every one present here is hurt,’ he said. ‘We just wanted to have a glimpse of them, we are tired from shouting slogans in praise of them and now they didn’t show up.’

An official of the Pakistan Cricket Board said that four players – captain Younis Khan, final’s man of the match Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam and Abdul Razzaq – did not accompany the team to Lahore and will be arriving later.

The Pakistan players were elated over their victory – the country’s biggest since winning the 1992 World Cup – but were also disappointed that fans could not greet them at the airport.

‘I apologise to the whole nation as a large number of people kept waiting for us at the airport, but we could not come out due to security reasons,’ left-arm paceman Sohail Tanvir told local media after arriving at the cricket academy amid tight security.

Coach Intikhab Alam described the victory as the ‘best gift’ for the nation after a long time, but said it was ‘unfortunate’ that fans could not greet their heroes.

‘People have not slept for the last two days, but unfortunately such things do happen and I want to thank them,’ Alam, who was also the coach of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup team, said.

‘We should win more laurels for the country and I don’t think we can give a better gift than this to the whole nation.