‘It Didn't Seem Like an ICC Event… Seemed Like a BCCI Event’: Mickey Arthur Minces No Words

There weren’t many green spots in the sea of blue during the India vs Pakistan contest at the Narendra Modi Stadium today. The capacity crowd was completely behind the Rohit Sharma-led unit and right from the moment the coin went up for the toss, they made their presence felt. If Rohit was greeted with a thundering roar, Pakistan captain Babar Azam received a deafening boo before he could even respond to Ravi Shastri’s question.

Moments changed but the script remained the same. If Harris Rauf tried to inject some drama into the modest defence with fiery bouncers and an aggressive return throw, the sea of blue came to Shreyas Iyer’s rescue with the loudest boo of the night. Throughout the day, the DJ kept humming Indian songs and extracted loud cheers for the likes of Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Virat Kohli and had animated introductory announcements for India’s star players.

Not once during the contest, a call to action was done for the Pakistan team and the same was felt by Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur who didn’t mince words during his assessment of the support.

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“Look, I’d be lying if I said it did. It didn’t seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event. I didn’t hear Dil Dil Pakistan coming through the microphones too often tonight,” says Arthur.

The team director further added that he is not using the one-sided crowd support as an excuse but It “does play a role”.

“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, the Indian players tonight,” adds Arthur.

‘Didn’t feel like a World Cup game’

Similar views were echoed by Pakistan head coach Grant Bradburn who was sad to not see Pakistan supporters in the stands.

“Naturally that was going to be the case. We are really sad that our supporters aren’t here, they would love be here and I am sure Indian cricket fans would love our supporters here as well,” says Grant at the mixed zone interaction.

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For the chief coach, it was “unusual” to hear “no familiar” music during the course of the match.

“It was certainly unusual in that way, no familiar music for us today. So it did not feel like a World Cup game, honestly. We didn’t expect anything else. We love the occasion and we are disappointed that we did not do justice to the occasion or justice to our many fans at home and globally,” adds Grant.