Sarfaraz Ahmed Explains Why He Did Not Respond To His Harasser

Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has admitted that he was "hurt and angry" by the harassment he suffered at the hands of a fan recently, but "consciously chose" not to respond.

In an interview with ICC Insider Zainab Abbas, Sarfaraz finally broke his silence on the incident where a fan had approached him and hurled abuses while he was with his son at a shopping mall. The incident had occurred in the aftermath of Pakistan's defeat to India on June 16.

“It was not because of me. It was because of my son Abdullah who was with me at that time that it hurt me even more,” he said.

“I was very angry at that moment, if I would have reacted at that time and gotten into an argument, people would have not seen the truth and I would have been seen in a negative light instead.

“That’s why I felt not reacting to the incident was the best response and left it to God. Everything happens due to God’s will, the video went viral and everyone supported me.”

The incident also affected Sarfaraz's wife as he recalled: “When I went back to the hotel I saw my wife crying after seeing the video. I tried to explain to her that this is just one video and that we have had people walk up to us and tell things to our face.

"This is nothing serious, we must be strong. All of this is a part of life, when we don’t perform well we will have to go through all this.”

Sarfaraz said that he "spoke to the fan's family" whose "family members also apologized on his behalf".

The skipper, however, thanked the fans who stuck by the team. "I am very grateful for all the love and support the Pakistani fans have showered on me after that incident," he said.

"The support we get from the fans here is immense and it is because of them that we get the courage to play overseas especially at places like England. Unfortunately the past week has been very tough for us after our loss against India.

“As a team, we learnt a lot from this and it can be seen in the response of our team gave against South Africa and after that the way the fans supported us, it has been quite amazing.”

“I would like to thank everyone who sent tweets and messages of support and love on social media. We are grateful to everyone. Whatever we are today is because of our fans. If our fans support us, even we will perform better and be motivated.

I have always said that our Pakistani fans love us a lot. And we also know that when we win they give us a lot of respect and when we lose their anger is valid because they have expectations from us.”

“They came to the hotel where we were staying and even met us outside and all of them told us one that that we should concentrate on giving our best game and leave the rest up to God.”

"I also saw the poster at Lord’s that said, 'we are sorry,'” he added.