Imam revealed the deeply hurtful experiences he and his family have endured
Pakistan opener, Imam-ul-Haq, in a recent conversation on a YouTube podcast, candidly discussed the reasons behind his parents' absence from the stadium during his matches, shedding light on the hurtful 'parchi' chants that have contributed to their decision.
Imam has unfortunately been entangled in the controversy surrounding accusations of nepotism due to his uncle, the renowned Pakistan cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was part of the selection committee, when the left-hander made his ODI debut.
In the podcast, Imam revealed the deeply hurtful experiences he and his family have endured.
“When I used to go out to dinner with my family, they would come up and call me parchi in front of my parents. I would be sitting at Nando’s with my family, and there would be young students quipping ‘look, the parchi is sitting there’. That was when I would feel the worst,” Imam said.
Imam shared that while his parents yearn to watch him play live in stadiums, but they have refrained from doing so because of the fear of encountering these derogatory chants.
“My parents want to watch me play, but they have not seen me play at a venue even once. Even I don’t want them to. I don’t want my mother hear someone utter parchi when I am fielding on the boundary. All this is normal to me. Whenever I am dismissed cheaply, they will not look at what I have achieved in my past but simply utter parchi. I do not want my family to be exposed to that.
“The first time my sister watched me play was in 2022, when both West Indies (ODIs) and England (a Test match) played at Multan. By then I was a senior member of the side. The fact that my family could not attend the matches was a mental torture for me,” he concluded.