KARACHI, Pakistan (AP):JEERING FANS yelling "Go to hell!" gave a stormy welcome yesterday to Pakistani cricketers returning home from their humiliating early exit from the World Cup.
Four players, including the swashbuckling allrounder Shahid Afridi, landed at Karachi airport and were pilloried for the team's shock loss to Ireland - that was followed a day later by the unsolved murder in Jamaica of coach Bob Woolmer.
Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and six other teammates arrived later yesterday in Lahore, but left through a cargo exit, according to an airport official, dodging dozens of waiting reporters.
In Karachi, about 200 people who had gathered at the airport taunted Afridi, a mercurial batsman, with chants of "Afridi! Sell lentils!" and "Deserter, where are you going?" - and marched behind him as dozens of police escorted him to a waiting car.
"Go to hell!" some in the crowd yelled as Afridi, wearing dark sunglasses, got into the car and drove away. The player, one of the most marketable stars in this cricket-crazy nation, made no response.
Internet photo montages
The poor showing of both Pakistan and India at the World Cup has prompted fans to exchange, through the Internet, photo montages of their cricket stars, recasting them in menial occupations such as fish sellers and chapati bakers. Afridi is pictured as a truck driver - a reference to his tribe's heavy involvement in road transportation in Pakistan.
Vice-captain Younis Khan was given a similarly derisive welcome on his return through Karachi on Monday,and took offense at one fan shouting that he should ride around the city on a donkey. More players were expected to arrive back in Pakistan later yesterday.
Afridi returned on a flight with leg spinner Danish Kaneria, fast bowler Mohammad Sami and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.
Akmal was waiting inside the airport to catch a connecting flight, but the crowd chanted "Shame! shame!" as Kaneria emerged, so police took him back inside. He and Sami were later spirited away from the airport through another exit.
Pakistan, who won the World Cup in 1992, suffered the worst upset in the tournament's 32-year history, when on March 17 they lost by three wickets to Ireland, a side of part-timers. That defeat sent Pakistan crashing out of the competition.
Speaking to an Associated Press reporter inside the airport terminal, Afridi and Akmal revealed their dismay at the loss, compounded by Woolmer's death a day later.
"We were very disturbed after losing in the World Cup and after the death of Bob Woolmer the next day we suffered mental tension," Akmal said. "Pray for us."
"It was a difficult time but God helped us endure it," said the usually flamboyant Afridi. "Bob Woolmer's death gave us a shock. Police asked us questions in that crisis but we were cleared."
"Thanks be to God that we have reached our country," he said.
