Partisan crowd, no fans, public address system: Pakistan’s excuses after defeat against India

Gandhinagar: Pakistanis have started giving strange excuses for their defeat in the World Cup cricket match against India at Narendra Modi stadium in Motera, Gujarat.

Karachi based leading newspaper, The Dawn has in its article made an argument in favor of the Pakistani team and said that Pakistani cricket fans were banned and not given visas. The newspaper further argues that ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ song was not played enough in the stadium and the crowd was cheering only the Indian cricket team. The newspaper has in its article blamed ‘partisan atmosphere’ in the stadium during the match. It further has blamed the public addressing system in the stadium for favoring India.

The newspaper has in its article quoted Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur as saying –

“It didn’t seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) event. I didn’t hear Dil Dil Pakistan coming through the microphones too often tonight. So yes, that does play a role, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse because for us it was about living the moment. It was about the next ball and it was about how we were going to combat the Indian players tonight.”

Motera stadium, the largest in the world had over 1.20 lakh cricket fans during this match. The Pakistani newspaper says – nearly all of them, however, were Indian fans, cheering the Indian team with energy levels as intensely as they could get and to make it even more intimidating for Pakistani players, the chants by the stadium announcer and the spectators were, obviously, only to buck up the home side. So was the case with the music being played at the cauldron-like venue. Pakistan fans were effectively banned from the ground after failing to secure visas to cross the border, leaving the arena awash with the blue shirts of India supporters as the hosts coasted to a seven-wicket victory. Arthur’s team were backed only by a handful of expatriate Pakistan fans who had made the trip from the United States and United Kingdom.India failed to issue visas to Pakistan fans despite them already having acquired World Cup match tickets.’

Mickey Arthur: "It didn't seem like an ICC event tonight" 🗣️#INDvPAK | #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/12PdMEcs0E

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 14, 2023

Pakistan head coach Grant Bradburn is quoted as saying – It would have been better if Pakistani fans were in the stadium. “We’re really sad that our supporters aren’t here and they would have loved to be here. Even the Indian fans would have loved to have Pakistani fans in the stadium. So, it was really unusual in that way. No familiar music for us! It did not feel like a World Cup game, honestly.”

It’s worth noting here that in past occasions when visas were given to Pakistani cricket fans for matches happening in India, many of them had gone missing and some of them could not be traced. Say for example in a 2005 cricket match in Punjab. 11 Pakistanis were missing after the match. The Amritsar Police had registered a case on March 31, 2005 against the Pakistani nationals for overstaying after their seven-day visa expired. This had created a big controversy and the government had decided not to grant visas on such occasions in future.

It is also obvious that any host country’s crows would cheer the home-team as far as it performs well. If the team of the guest country performs extremely well, people could cheer them up also. The Pakistani cricket team was bundled out below 200 score in just 42.5 overs. India won the match by 7 wickets. By the way across varieties of crowds and country, India has won all 8 world-cup matches played against Pakistan so far in the cricket history, so excuses like partisan crows and public address system appear very non-serious and completely self-invented. DeshGujarat