Bhubaneswar: Pakistan may have won the semi-final against India, but they surely have not won Indian hearts as they celebrated their win in the FIH Men's Champions Trophy on Saturday with obscene gestures, including finger salutes, directed towards Indian players and the fans.
All Pakistan players took their shirts off running wildly on the ground with obscene gestures, which is unacceptable in any sporting arena, where you are expected to shake hands with your opponents after the match to maintain the spirit of the game.
The FIH then said that an investigation into the incident has also started. "We are investigating what happened on the field. A report will be filed" Ken Read, Competitions committee chairman, said after the match.
However, minutes later, FIH released an official statement saying that "no further action is warranted".
"At the conclusion of the semi-final match between India and Pakistan, which was won by Pakistan, the celebration of the Pakistani team contained some behaviour that warranted further investigation by me as Tournament Director," Wiert Doyer said in an FIH press release.
"As a result I have spoken to the Head Coach of the Pakistan team, Mr. Shahnaz Sheikh, and told him that the behaviour of Pakistan players went beyond what is acceptable to standards of the FIH.
"The behaviour in question concerned many members of the Pakistan team. It is difficult to find any particular miscreant, and it is possible that the behaviour of the players may have been a reaction.
"Mr Shahnaz Sheikh has apologised and assured me that this behaviour will not occur again. Given these matters, I've decided that no further action is warranted," the statement further read.
The match was level at 3-3 until the penultimate minute when Muhammad Qadir's deflection turned the game towards Pakistan's way. But what happened afterwards should shame Pakistan.
Pakistan coach Sheikh came running onto the pitch seeing his players react objectionably. He even tapped goalkeeper Amjal Ali behind the head for doing obscene gestures.
At the post-match press conference, however, Pakistan coach apologised. "The boys have done a mistake by doing what they did. I apologise on their behalf." However, he refused to say anything further on that.
India captain Sardar Singh was also visibly annoyed with what the Pakistan players did. "We won the Asian Games final, but we didn't anything like that. This is not the right way to celebrate."
Earlier, hugely anticipated day ended in a heartbreak for Indian fans as Pakistan knocked India out of the title race.
India will now play Australia in a bronze-medal playoff after the defending champions lost the first semi-final to Germany 2-3. Interestingly the two bottom-ranked teams from the pool stage will contest in the title match.
Pakistan No. 18 Muhammad Qadir's strike in the 59th minute sealed the fate of the game but Pakistan players celebrated objectionably with vulgar actions after the final whistle.
Qadir was the man who first drew level for Pakistan with a 17th min strike. Muhammad Waqas (32nd) and Muhammad Irfan (44th) were the other scorers for the visitors. After Gurjinder Singh's opening goal of the game, Dharamvir Singh (38th) and Chandanna Thimmaiah (44th) kept India in the match.
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