International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Greg Barkley is still hopeful that India will continue to host a ‘spectacular’ World Cup despite concerns over poor fan numbers and behavior in the early stages of the event.
Pakistan cricket team director Mickey Arthur criticized the ICC for not encouraging his team during the match against arch-rivals India in Ahmedabad.
Mickey Arthur said that the match looked more like a ‘BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) event’ than a major international cricket match.
“Whenever we have a match there is always criticism from different quarters,” Barkley said in response to a question from news agency AFP in Mumbai on Monday. These are issues that we will try to eliminate and work on and improve the situation.’
BCCI, the financial powerhouse of global cricket, has already come under fire for delaying announcing the World Cup schedule until three months before the tournament begins.
A few weeks after it was first published, the schedule was suddenly changed and some major matches were rescheduled.
Meanwhile, fans have complained of online ticketing issues. The number of spectators in the stadium was very low in those matches in which the host team was not.
Pakistani fans did not get Indian visas due to which they were not present at the Ahmedabad Stadium to watch the match. In these conditions, the stadium was filled with supporters of the blue shirts. In this match, host India won against Pakistan by seven wickets.
Speaking in Mumbai after the International Olympic Committee voted to include T20 cricket in the Los Angeles Games 2028 programme, Barclay defended the World Cup.
‘This event has just started, let’s see how the whole tournament goes. We will then review what changes we can make. How can we improve the World Cup and its general affairs?’
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“I am confident it will be a fantastic World Cup.”
In Ahmedabad, Pakistan was supported only by a handful of foreign fans who had flown in from America and Britain.
“The truth is, this tournament doesn’t look like an ICC event,” said Mickey Arthur.
‘It looked like a two-way series. It looked like it was a BCCI event.’
Mickey Arthur accused the administrators of the public address system of supporting India by refusing to play Pakistan’s unofficial anthem ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’.
Mickey Arthur said: ‘Yes, it plays a role but I’m not going to use it as an excuse.’
India and Pakistan have not played a full bilateral series since the Mumbai attacks in 2008 and there is still a bitter diplomatic row between New Delhi and Islamabad.
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2024-10-04 11:59:28
