Video: Pakistani fan apologises for abusing Sarfaraz Ahmed

London - The young fan was heavily criticised for his abusive language while the captain was with his child.

Pakistan fans have made their displeasure known on social media ever since the team's poor show against arch-rivals India in their World Cup encounter in Manchester and a fresh video had surfaced wherein skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed was abused by a young Pakistani fan.
Also read: PCB chairman tells Sarfaraz to focus on remaining matches

Sarfaraz was walking in a mall in England with his son on his lap when a fan stopped him and asked why he was looking 'fat'. The fan then posted the video on social media.
Soon after the video went viral all over the world, the young man was heavily criticised for his abusive use of language - as he had compared the Pakistan to an animal. Even Bollywood actor, Riteish Deshmukh lashed out at the boy for harassing the player while he was with his son.
The embarrassed fan took to social media earlier this weekend to post an apology video, claiming that he had deleted the video after recording it and doesn't know how it got uploaded on social media. Apologising to the Pakistan captain, fans and those offended by the video, he added that he wasn't aware that Ahmed was a hafiz-e-quran (memoriser of the Holy Quran) and was carrying his child at the moment.
This is not the first time when fans have crossed the line and gotten personal with the Pakistan players. In fact, photos of Shoaib Malik, his wife Sania Mirza and Wahab Riaz partying on the eve of the India-Pakistan game started doing the rounds soon after their loss to India on June 16.
Also read: Malik responds to viral sheesha video

In a game that was completely dominated by India, Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir was the only bright spot as he returned figures of 3/47 from his 10 overs. And while the fans were not pleased and took to social media to ridicule the players, Amir had requested them to not use bad words even though they were free to criticise the players.

Taking to Twitter, Amir wrote: "Pls dont use bad words for the players yes u guys can criticise our performance we will bounce back InshAllah we need ur support (sic)."

Shoaib Malik also added his bit on Twitter and wrote: "On behalf of all athletes I would like to request media and people to maintain respect levels in regards to our families, who should not be dragged into petty discussions at will. It's not a nice thing to do."

Interestingly, the Pakistan Cricket Board had come out with a clarification that the photos of the players dining and partying till late on the eve of the high-voltage clash was actually not from the eve of the game.

"The cricketers did not violate their curfew," a PCB spokesperson told DawnNewsTV.

"The videos and photographs that went viral (on social media) are from two days before the match. The day before the match against India, all the players were in their hotel rooms by curfew time."
See the original video, retweeted by Deshmukh, here.

• Pakistan