Ind vs Pak: Great Amir Khan comes as avenger

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Manchester, June 18

Enter Amir Khan. The champion has declared that he’d salvage the honour of Pakistan. Khan, of course, is the brilliant boxer who wowed the world when he won a silver medal in boxing at the 2004 Olympic Games. Khan is British, born in Bolton, not very far from where Pakistan suffered their defeat to India in the World Cup. Khan is an affable man in person, but his Pakistani ancestry has thrust him in the position of avenger of Pakistan’s defeat.

Khan fights India’s Neeraj Goyat in a boxing bout in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, next month. “Come July 12th, I will avenge the loss and knock out Neeraj Goyat on our upcoming fight in Saudi Arabia,” Khan wrote on Twitter.

In class and experience, Goyat is no match for Khan, and Khan is shooting from the lip, using the time-tested method of hyping a bout. Pakistan anyway loves him for being a British Pakistani champ, and he’s showing terrific business sense by adding the revenge motive to the bout.

Malik vs Malik

There can be doubts over the news value of this report, but it’s important because it could have serious international implications. Actress Veena Malik has admonished tennis star Sania Mirza about her parenting methods. “Sania, I am actually so worried for the kid. You guys took him to a sheesha place isn’t it Hazardious?” Veena wrote on the social media, and added: “Also as far as I know Archie’s is all about junk food which isn’t good for athletes/Boys. You must know well as you are mother and athlete yourself?”

Sania Mirza was allegedly spotted at Sheesha bar — a hooka smoking place — with her son Izhaan and husband Shoaib Malik before the match against Pakistan. Pakistani players had been criticised for eating junk food and staying out late before the match. In that context, Veena’s comment is important: She is clearly worried about the effects of late nights on the ‘boys’ of the Pakistani team. Maybe someone will ignite a controversy here: Indian citizen Sania out late with Pakistani Shoaib Malik before an India-Pakistan match. Sania isn’t the one to take a personal attack lightly, and she reacted: “Veena, I have not taken my kid to a sheesha place. Not that it’s any of your or the rest of the world’s business cause I think I care about my son a lot more than anyone else does :) Secondly I am not Pakistan cricket team’s dietician nor am I their mother or principal or teacher… to know when they sleep, wake up and eat…”

There will be more on it, we can be sure.