Zainab Abbas, a Pakistani sports journalist, now in England to cover the ongoing Champions Trophy matches has been flooded with requests from fans to post at least one selfie with Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews. The reason is, whenever this reporter took selfies with the captains, their teams have lost the ODI!
And Pakistan fans want to ensure that their team does not lose the crucial last match against Sri Lanka on Monday at the Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. The sequence started with Pakistan-India match on 4th June. Zainab took a selfie with Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed and Pakistan lost the match against India. She then had a selfie with the South African skipper AB de Villiers and the South African team lost the match against Pakistan. It was then the turn of Virat Kohli, who too lost the match against Sri Lanka after taking a selfie with the reporter. Not only that, the last two captains, AB de Villiers and Kohli didn’t even open their account.
“Obviously it’s a coincidence. What more can there be to it?”, Zainab asked, while chatting with this reporter over her mobile from London. “I am here to do my job and am/was a fan of AB and Kohli hence got selfies with them. Unfortunately it didn’t work out (well for them)”, she added. “I really don’t care if my image on social media is portrayed negative. I have taken a few selfies with the Pakistani skipper too and there is nothing wrong with it. If I get a chance to have a fresh selfie with the Sri Lankan skipper, why can’t I have it ? He is great player!”, she said.
“My wishes are with all the players of the tournament but obviously I will be supporting the Pakistan team (on Monday)”, Zainab Abbas, the TV reporter, added. Fellow Pakistan reporter, Asif Khan, speaking exclusively from Karachi, says in her defence, “Taking selfies with anyone is not an awkward thing to do at all and we all take selfies with known personalities whenever a chance comes our way but terming these photos a bad omen, for someone is totally uncalled for”. “I personally feel that fans, over the social media, went overboard and turned derogatory at time. We must understand the difference between humour and humiliation”, he added.
Aakar Patel:
I honestly think that the fan in the journalist comes out when they are in the presence of a star. And frankly, it is human tendency and is natural to want a selfie with a celebrity. However, it then becomes difficult to create objective content around the person. It happens all because of technology. A few decades ago, back when I was a reporter, a fan would preserve a photograph or an autograph. Today, it is just a selfie they take which is up on their social media within seconds. Journalists are very much awed by the fact that they are around a big star but it ends up coming in the way of their work.
Pritish Nandi:
This, I don’t think is a new phenomenon. Selfie journalism has been picking up momentum since the past few years and I think it affects how journalists write about a star because it shows how they are, deep down, a fan of the star. It is also quite rare for a star to deny taking a selfie with someone because then it makes for an awkward situation and when you are in the public sphere, how many times are you going to say no? I also think that stars don’t want to say a no to selfies because it is only beneficial for them to take pictures with fans and people out of their professional circle.
Ayaz Memon:
The fact that a selfie would come in the way of writing an objective, unbiased piece on a star is an extreme way to look at it. We are in the selfie age; today, one doesn’t need to preserve a physical picture — it is all digital — at the tip of your fingers. And, the ease of doing this has transformed every body into a selfie junkie. I think, wanting to take a selfie has a lot more to do with the human nature than it is to do with being a journalist or a photographer. A selfie is not a measure of friendship or a connection. Several people are swayed by the fact that they have taken a selfie, but frankly it doesn’t mean anything more than them being present at a certain place at a particular time.
