The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday posted on X that it had filed an official complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC) regarding “inappropriate conduct targeted at the Pakistan squad” during the India-Pakistan World Cup match on Oct 14.
PCB did not specify the nature of the incident during the match in which India defeated Pakistan in the much-hyped clash in Ahmedabad. It also said it would make a ‘formal protest’ over the delays in visas for Pakistan journalists who wanted to cover the World Cup.
Earlier, Indian news agency PTI reported that PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf had returned home amid talks of the protest and would hold a series of meetings with senior board officials.
“Ashraf was himself present in Ahmedabad for the match against India and was witness to some incidents which left him unhappy despite the Indian cricket officials’ hospitality during his stay there,” said a source.
Pakistan team director and chief coach Mickey Arthur spoke about the crowd behaviour and its impact on his team after the defeat, and ICC chairman Greg Barclay responded that the sport’s world governing body was doing its best to make the World Cup a successful event.
Aljazeera reported that there were deafening boos when Pakistan captain Babar Azam took his turn to speak after the toss in the middle of the stadium, and it carried on long after India had inflicted another heavy loss on their neighbours.
The Pakistani cricketers were at the receiving end of incessant hostilities, it said, and the partisan nature of the crowd became evident as any boundary scored by the Pakistani batters was met with pin-drop silence.
The source said Ashraf was extremely disappointed with the players’ show against India but told them to forget the Ahmedabad defeat and look forward to their remaining matches.
India were the dominant side both with the bowling and batting as Babar’s Pakistan showed no gumption to fight, NDTV Sports reported.
The clash was pretty much a one-sided affair.
Batting first, Pakistan were all out for 191 with Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav picking up two wickets each. India, boosted by some brilliant batting from Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer, reached the target easily.
After the match, Arthur said the atmosphere inside the Narendra Modi Stadium – the biggest cricket stadium in the world, with seats for up to 130,000 people – did not feel like “an ICC event”. “It seemed like a bilateral series, like a BCCI (Indian cricket board) event. I didn’t hear (the patriotic song) Dil Dil Pakistan coming through the microphones too often tonight.”
But he stressed that the lack of support from the crowd was no excuse for the team’s heavy loss to India.
“So, yes, it played a role but I’m not going to use that as an excuse because for us. It was about living the moment, the next ball and how we were going to combat the Indian players.”
Barclay downplayed the criticism, saying: “Every event that we have, there’s always criticisms from various quarters.
“Let’s see how the whole thing plays out, and we’ll go away and review what can change and do better, how we can improve World Cups and the general offering around cricket.
“We will just take it as it plays out, get to the end of the event. I’m satisfied that it will still be an outstanding World Cup.”
Arthur admitted that Pakistan didn’t play fearless cricket on the day. “We were a little bit timid tonight. I would have liked us to really take the game on just a little bit more. It’s a massive occasion, as we know, but I think we just went into our shells a little bit.”
Indo-Asian News Service
