Pakistan’s opener batsman, Babar Azam, came forward in strong support of his co-player Mohammad Rizwan, condemning how people responded to his ‘win or learn’ remark.
Muhammad Rizwan, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper and ODI captain, said a phrase after losing the match “In every game there is either Win or Learn.” He said that to make a positive impact after defeat, there is always a lesson in defeat, one should always try to learn it.
However, the people on social media took his words into fun and made thousands of trolls and memes, also attacking his English-speaking skills. Neither it is good ethically nor morally to make fun of others .
While speaking on Peshawar Zalmi YouTube channel, the right handed 30-year-old batsman highlighted the immaturity of meme culture and Rizwan’s comment. He claimed that Rizwan’s comment was based on a different point of view and he didn’t deserve to be made fun of for his words.
“Who created this? This was created by our own. It’s always our own who are busy pulling each other down,” he said.
“If he [Rizwan] said something and he said it from a different perspective — you can’t interpret and present it however you want,” Babar added.
Babar Azam further talked about the mental health of players, by mentioning that it is needed to take care of the mental health of players nowadays. No one knows about the stress level from which one person is suffering. You should be kind to each other. He also showed his deeper grief on the lack of awareness and support for mental health in Pakistan, specifically in the sports department.
“In Pakistan, there is no concept of mental health, nor is there any work being done on it, while foreign players give mental health a lot of importance,” he observed.
“Here, if someone is falling, we just keep pushing them down — and make memes out of them,” he said.
Despite the immense critiques, Babar praised about Rizwan’s mental capabilities and his strong faith, by saying,
“It [win or learn] statement didn’t affect him in the slightest. He is the kind of person who doesn’t care what people say and doesn’t pay attention to it.”
“He is very strong — stronger than all of us, and his faith is unshakable.” “Memes have zero effect on Rizwan. He says people have the right to express their opinions, and he’s not bothered by it,” Babar views Rizwan.
Babar also pointed out the volatile nature of public reviews regarding Rizwan’s captaincy.
“A lot of people used to say, ‘If Rizwan becomes captain, this and that will happen.’ Now they’re saying, ‘Remove him.’ No one understands this better than I do.”
“Whatever you feed into people’s minds, that’s exactly what they will follow,” he concluded.
In the current era of social media, no one cares about other people’s fame or image, they are just fighting for their own viewership and likes for their content, by making memes and making fun of each other without thinking of anyone’s mental health or stress level.
