“We will just take it as it develops until the end of the event. I am satisfied that it will still be an outstanding World Cup.”
Nagraj Gollapudi16. Oct 2023 • 1 hour ago
Arthur: Pakistan were “shy” with their performance.
“We didn’t play the Pakistani way today,” says head coach
The ICC will consider Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur’s criticism that India’s World Cup match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad on October 14 felt more like a “bilateral series match”, but remains confident the tournament will be remembered as “outstanding”. . one as soon as it’s over.
Arthur admitted after his side’s seven-wicket defeat that the team was affected by the partisan crowd due to the scant Pakistani presence at the packed Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Pakistani fans were conspicuous by their absence from the venue, as no fan had yet received a visa to travel across the border. Only a handful of Pakistani journalists and a small number of Pakistani fans who are residents or citizens of other countries managed to cover the game in time.
“Look, I’d be lying if I said that [not affect us]”said Arthur after the match. “To be completely honest, it didn’t seem like an ICC event. It appeared to be a bilateral series; it appeared to be a BCCI event.”
When asked to respond to Arthur’s comments, ICC chairman Greg Barclay appeared to play them down as the kind of criticism that is par for the course at such tournaments. “Every event we host, there is always criticism from different quarters,” Barclay was quoted as saying by AFP in Mumbai, where he was attending the International Olympic Committee meeting calling for the inclusion of T20 cricket in the Olympics Voted in Los Angeles in 2028.
“Things that we might take with us and try to work on making better… so this event is the only thing.” [at] the beginning. Let’s see how this all plays out and then look at what could change, what we can do better, how we can improve the World Cup and the wider cricket offering.
“We’ll just deal with it as it develops and finish the event. I am satisfied that it will still be an outstanding World Cup.”
While the India vs Pakistan contest was watched by a record crowd – both locally and globally – the organizers have not yet announced the official number of participants.
The Ahmedabad venue is the largest cricket ground in terms of capacity with over 110,000 seats.
ESPNcricinfo has sent a query to both the ICC and BCCI, the tournament organizers. There was also no response from the ICC and BCCI to a query on how many seats were officially put on sale for the marquee competition. When the ticket sales schedule for the tournament was released in late August, the BCCI had said that September 3 would be reserved exclusively for tickets for the India-Pakistan match. On October 8, the BCCI announced that it would put an additional 14,000 tickets for sale for the match. Three days later, the BCCI published on
There were numerous complaints from fans about the existing online ticketing system and the first part of the tournament – with the exception of the games in India and Delhi – was characterized by low attendance.
Nagraj Gollapudi is News Editor at ESPNcricinfo