India Colts crossed the line. But who will school them?

CHENNAI: Another India vs Pakistan final, another fight breaks out. The first thought: Oh, it is Pakistan which egged on the Indian side yet again. The next thought: These players deserve the harshest of punishments and sanctions.

November 14, 2026, U-19 Asia Cup final. The characters are the same, but the script? Quite different. As India sealed a nervy one-wicket win over its arch-rivals Pakistan, Indian players stormed onto the field. Until that point, the celebration seemed justified. They had all the rights in the world to celebrate joyously. After all, the last two pairs put on 87 runs to win the game.

Then those justifiably joyous celebrations turned ugly.

One after another, Indian players turned that heat towards Pakistan wicketkeeper Hamza Zahoor. It wasn’t just celebration; it was a full-blown verbal barrage. One that might have had a few words in between a long beep if broadcast. The clip posted on social media clearly shows Indian player Manal Chauhan verbally spraying all over Hamza before being dragged away by a support staff member.

It wasn’t him alone. In other clips that circulated on social media after the match, several Indian players isolated Hamza and kept hurling choice words at him. On every occasion, the support staff were required to pull the players out of trouble. Were youngsters carried away? "They shouldn’t be judged too harshly; it is quite common on a cricket field,” were some public emotions on social media.

Some even went to great lengths, saying “Context matters”. The context in this case might be Hamza’s celebration after Pakistan defeated India earlier in the tournament. The wicketkeeper-batter smashed an unbeaten ton and took out a chit from his pocket, which read: “Tomorrow match 50 inshaallah, Hamza Zahoor, I am best.”

That’s the context. But the problem isn’t the context or the celebration, but the verbal barrage that transpired. We are in an age where the ugly incident is being normalised. Would the reaction be justified if the same happened to an Indian player? That’s where the fans need to draw a line, not at the border of the nation they belong to.

Such events usually go unpunished under the purview of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), which doesn't have the same power as the International Cricket Council (ICC). And until such events are punished, such incidents will become the 'new normal'.