ICC T20 World Cup: Jersey business blooms as Pakistan make it to semis

As Pakistan have qualified for the semi-finals of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup, there has been a boom in the national kit sales.

When the Men-in-Green broke the jinx of never winning against India in a World Cup fixture by handing them a comprehensive 10-wicket defeat, people flocked towards the Light House market to get the national team’s jerseys.

“There was a festival,” said Azeem Qureshi who has a sports goods shop in Light House, Karachi, since 1967 and looking after the business since 1988. We got to sell about 500 to 600 jerseys a day apart from the wholesale.”

He maintained that people of all ages came to buy the shirts to express their love and support for the team. “Suddenly, the demand for jerseys had surpassed the supply we were getting from Faisalabad,” he added.

Interestingly, as Pakistan humiliated India in their opening game, there was also a surge in the interest for Indian shirts as people wanted to buy the Blue shirt to mock the neighbours by making videos and taking photos.

“People even came to me and ask if I had any Indian jersey (any World Cup edition), they wanted to buy them to make TikToks and other stuff,” he shared.

Moreover, according to him, there is an increase in demand for Afghanistan’s jersey following their impressive run in the mega-event. “There is a vast population of Afghan migrants living in Karachi, so they wanted to buy Afghanistan shirts,” he added.

Declined demand

Before the start of the tournament, when we roamed in the Light House market, we witnessed that football clubs’ jerseys were on the display far more than Pakistan’s national kit.

There were huge stocks available in shops of clubs like Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Barcelona, Juventus and others. 

However, with Pakistan’s dominance in the T20I event so far, the scenario has changed and now people are looking to buy Green shirts.

Siddiqui and another shopkeeper, Safdar Afridi, who has been in this business for the last 30 years, had shared that the most number of jerseys that they sold were of World Cup 2011, citing the reason that Pakistan were to face the arch-rivals India in the semi-final of the tournament.

“Whenever Pakistan perform well, people buy jerseys,” said Siddiqui. “Moreover, they even start buying kit bags, bats and balls. The passion triggers among people and they start playing cricket on the streets. When Pakistan don’t perform well, our overall business takes a blow.”