On November 9, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka to as good as qualify for the top four of the 2023 World Cup, leaving the hopes of Pakistan and Afghanistan hanging by the thinnest of threads.

On November 10, Virender Sehwag posted a message on X that ran “Pakistan Zindabhaag! Have a safe flight back home.” The word zindabhaag, an out-of-dictionary portmanteau of zindabad (long live) and bhaag (run), crudely translates to “run for your lives”.

The message was accompanied by an image that read “bye bye Pakistan”, with unsubstantiated rumours of it being from the scoreboard at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after New Zealand’s win.

Sehwag’s post received mixed reactions. A day later, Sehwag posted a quasi-clarification on the same platform. He compared India and Pakistan’s performances at the World Cup in the 21st century: in six attempts, India made five semi-finals, Pakistan just one.

He then took a jibe at former Pakistan cricketer Hasan Raza’s allegations of the ICC and the BCCI tampering with the balls mid-game, and reminded of, among other things, previous comments by the Pakistan Prime Minister and the PCB.

He posted screenshots of tweets, some of them from 2022, of cricketers, board officials, and politicians, among others, from Pakistan.

“Those preaching class, that is a two way street,” he concluded. “Jo Achha vyavhar kare uske saath hum bahut hi achhe, aur jo aisa vyavhar kare toh sahi mauke par soot samet lautana is my way. On field bhi, off-field bhi.” (If you are good to us, so are we. Else, we pay you back with interest – both on and off the field).

In the 21st century there have been 6 ODI world cups.
In 6 attempts, only once in 2007 did we not qualify for the semi-finals and have qualified in 5 of the last 6 World cups. On the other hand only once have Pakistan qualified for the semis in 6 attempts in 2011.
And they come… pic.twitter.com/W7U67pBrFU

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) November 11, 2023