Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur has come under fire for his comments after his side's defeat against India in the ICC World Cup 2023 last week.
Pakistan players received a hostile reception at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday with some even getting booed by the Indian spectators.
Babar, Rizwan at the receiving end
Captain Babar Azam, wicketkeeper Muhammad Rizwan were at the receiving end of the fans who even chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' to taunt the latter after he got out on 49.
Babar was also one of the players who was booed. The crowd behaviour was noticed right at the toss when Babar was going to speak to commentator Ravi Shastri after India captain Rohit Sharma.
Arthur's criticism of BCCI & ICC
Arthur openly criticised the match officials and organisers for the lack of support the Pakistani players received at the stadium, which he pointed as one of the reasons behind their defeat.
"Look, I'd be lying if I said it did (not affect us). It didn't seem like an ICC event, to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event," Arthur said after the match.
Hardly any Pak fans attended the match
It has to be noted that a delay in releasing all the tickets and visas for Pakistani fans resulted in very few supporters coming to watch the match in the stadium from across the border.
In fact, there were hardly any Pakistani fans visible in the stadium among a sea of blue jerseys at the 110,000 capacity venue.
ICC's statement
The ICC has said that it will "review what could change" to make things better for visiting teams in their world events.
"Every event that we have, there's always criticisms from various quarters. Things that perhaps we'll take away and try to work on, try to do better… so this event's only [at] the start.
"Let's see how the whole thing plays out and we'll go away and we'll review what could change, what we can 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," ICC chairman Greg Barclay told ESPNCricinfo in Mumbai.
