THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Bal Ram Sampla
Geopolitics
There is a well-known phrase — “crocodile tears.” It describes someone who pretends to be heartbroken over something, while deep down they know perfectly well that their complaint holds no water. After the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, Pakistani media and fans have put on one of the finest crocodile tear performances in recent cricketing memory.
The target of their fury? ICC Chairman Jay Shah. The crime? Awarding the Player of the Tournament to India’s Sanju Samson instead of Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan. The twist? The ICC not only nominated Farhan for the award but also placed him at number one in the official Team of the Tournament. Yet somehow, this has been twisted into a story of Indian conspiracy, anti-Pakistan bias, and deliberate robbery.
Let us take clear look at what actually happened — and why the outrage is as hollow as Pakistan’s campaign in this very tournament.
What Farhan Actually Did — And Didn’t Do
Sahibzada Farhan finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer with 383 runs across seven matches. On paper, that looks extraordinary. Pakistani media repeated that number endlessly. The media and analysts kept repeating that Farhan has beaten Virat Kholi’s record. The problem is what that number hides.
Farhan’s two centuries — the performances his fans are most proud of — deserve a closer inspection. The first came against Namibia, an associate nation with limited bowling talent. The second came against Sri Lanka, a match Pakistan nearly lost, and failed to win by a big enough margin to qualify for the semi-finals. During that Sri Lanka innings, Farhan visibly slowed down in the 90s, consuming precious balls to reach his personal milestone — a habit that has earned him the unflattering but accurate nickname “documentary boy,” a player who bats for personal highlights and social media posts rather than team results.
Even India’s Irfan Pathan, commentating live and hardly a man with any reason to be biased against Pakistan, was stunned. When Farhan was on 99 in the final over and chose to take a quiet single rather than attack, Pathan could barely believe what he was watching. “Unbelievable,” he said on air. “Kamaal hai.” That disbelief said everything.
Then come the numbers nobody wants to discuss in Pakistan. Against India — zero runs off just four balls. Against New Zealand — a diamond duck, dismissed without facing a single delivery. The two biggest tests of the Super 8 stage, and Farhan contributed literally nothing. His impressive total of 383 runs was built almost entirely against Netherlands, USA, Namibia, and Sri Lanka — three of whom are not full Test-playing nations. Against actual world-class opposition, he failed.
Pakistan were eliminated at the Super 8 stage. They failed to reach the semi-finals for the fourth consecutive major ICC event. This is the context in which we are being asked to mourn the fact that Farhan did not win a car.
What Samson Actually Did
Now let us talk about Sanju Samson, the man who did win Player of the Tournament and, yes, the car that came with it.
Samson was actually dropped for most of India’s group stage matches. He sat on the bench while his teammates handled the early rounds. When he finally got his chance, he scored 22 off 8 balls against Namibia and 24 off 15 against Zimbabwe. Useful, but not spectacular.
Then the knockout stages arrived. And that is when Samson did something that separates the great from the merely statistically impressive.
Against West Indies in the Super 8s — a virtual quarter-final — Samson scored 97 not out off 50 balls at a strike rate of 194. Against England in the semi-final, he made 89 off 42 balls at a strike rate of 212. In the World Cup final against New Zealand, he scored another 89 off 46 balls. Three consecutive scores of 80 or more in knockout matches. Three times he was close to a century and three times he simply did not care, continuing to attack the bowling rather than slow down for a personal milestone. His team won the World Cup. That was enough for him.
His overall strike rate was 199. Farhan’s was 160. In T20 cricket, that difference is enormous.
More telling than any number: Samson’s biggest scores came when India could not afford to lose. Farhan’s centuries came when Pakistan could, and eventually did, afford to go home.
The Jay Shah Conspiracy — Built on Nothing
This is where Pakistani media’s argument descends from the merely weak into the genuinely absurd.
Jay Shah is Indian. He is the son of India’s Home Minister. He became ICC Chairman in December 2024. These are facts. The conclusion Pakistani media have drawn from these facts — that he manipulated the Player of the Tournament award to favour an Indian player — is not a fact. It is a conspiracy theory with no evidence whatsoever.
The Player of the Tournament is decided by a panel. This tournament’s panel included Ian Bishop of the West Indies, Natalie Germanos, Eoin Morgan of England, and a sports journalist. It is not a decision made by one man. It is not a decision made in secret. And the ICC also included Farhan in their Team of the Tournament as the opening batter — which rather demolishes the argument that the organisation was trying to erase him from history.
If Jay Shah truly wanted to humiliate Pakistan, why was Farhan nominated at all? Why was he placed at the top of the official XI? The answer is obvious — because the ICC recognised Farhan’s statistical achievement while correctly giving the Player of the Tournament award to the man whose runs actually won matches.
This is not the first time Pakistani cricket has pointed at Jay Shah when things go wrong. Earlier in this very tournament, former Pakistan great Saqlain Mushtaq accused the ICC of preparing pitches deliberately to hurt Pakistan — before Pakistan had even lost a match. Pakistani media called the ICC the “Indian Cricket Council.”
The pattern is exhausting and familiar. When Pakistan wins, it is because their cricketers are brilliant. When Pakistan loses — or when an award goes to someone else — it is because of India, the ICC, Jay Shah, biased umpires, biased pitches, or some combination of all of the above.
The Farhan Problem Nobody Wants to Admit
There is an even more uncomfortable truth here. Farhan was included in the ICC Team of the Tournament — and still, Pakistani fans were unhappy. Some reports even suggest the PCB pressured the ICC to include him, with threats of boycotting future events if he was left out. If true, that is extraordinary. A governing board using political pressure to lobby for individual player awards is a remarkable way to demonstrate confidence in your own cricketer’s achievements.
And then there is the small matter of Farhan’s behaviour on the field. During the Asia Cup 2025, he celebrated a half-century with a theatrical “gunshot” gesture with his bat — a provocative act that earned him an official ICC warning for what was widely interpreted as a politically charged reference. This is the player Pakistani media wants to crown as the moral victim of ICC injustice.
Conclusion: The Mirror Nobody Wants to Look Into
Sahibzada Farhan had a statistically impressive T20 World Cup. He deserves credit for his consistency and his place in the Team of the Tournament. But the Player of the Tournament award was always going to go to the player whose runs mattered most, in the biggest games, for a team that lifted the trophy. By every measure that actually counts — strike rate, knockout performance, match impact, team result — Sanju Samson was the correct choice.
Pakistan went out in the Super 8s. Their opener scored two centuries against associate nations and near-associate nations, played selfishly for milestones at critical moments, and contributed zero runs in the two knockout matches that ended their campaign. Jay Shah did not cause any of this.
The tears are real. The grievance is not. And until Pakistani cricket stops looking for conspiracies and starts looking in the mirror, the semi-final will remain a distant dream — award or no award, car or no car.
References
1.https://www.theweek.in/news/sports/2026/02/01/icc-turned-into-indian-cricket-council-pcbs-desperate-bid-to-blame-jay-shah-for-boycott.html
2.https://ppforum.pakpassion.net/threads/sahibzada-farhan-clinches-spot-in-the-team-of-the-tournament-announced-by-icc-for-t20-world-cup-2026.320829/
3.https://crex.com/cricket-news/jay-shah-icc-face-allegations-on-doctoring-pitches-for-pakistan-t20-world-cup-matches-6986efc840121de785274877
4.https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/single-unbelievable-irfan-pathan-slams-050100922.html
