Karachi Former Pakistan women cricket captain Sana Mir has once again come into the limelight. While commenting in Pakistan and Bangladesh matches during the Women’s World Cup 2025, she referred to player Natalia Parvez to be “Azad Kashmir”, which caused controversy on Indian audience and social media.
Mir had said that Natalia mostly comes to Lahore to play cricket. His statement was immediately reacted by the Indian audience and clarified that Natalia comes from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). After this, #Pok started trending fast on social media and many users accused Mir of deliberately giving political color.
On Thursday night, Sana Mir released a clarification on social media, saying that he did not intend to make any political comments. He said that for his commentary, she mostly collects information from ESPNCRICINFO and Natalia’s home area was recorded on the same page. Mir wrote that his aim was only to highlight the background of the players and their struggles.
She also stated that during the commentary she shares the inspiring stories of the players coming from different areas and the example of Natalia was also part of this sequence.
This dispute has come up at a time when India-Pakistan cricket relations are already tense. After the Pahalgam terror attack in April, the Indian men’s team refused to join hands with the Pakistan team in the Asia Cup 2025 and take a trophy and medal.
Now on Sunday, October 5, India-Pakistan is going to compete with the Women’s World Cup. There are speculations that the Indian women’s team can hesitate to fulfill formality with Pakistan like the men’s team.