AHMEDABAD: Even as he wasn’t willing to dish out that as an excuse, Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur minced no words in pointing out the fact that his team did miss the presence of its fans, as a 1,30,000 partisan crowd cheered India to a seven-wicket win for the hosts at the Narendra Modi Stadium in their 2023 ODI World Cup league clash on Saturday night. Pakistan’s fans are yet to receive a visa to travel to India to watch the mega tournament.
“It didn’t seem like an ICC event, I would be pretty honest. It seemed like a bilateral series, like a BCCI event. I didn’t hear ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ coming through the microphones too often. That does play a role, but I am not using that as an excuse because for us, it was about living in the moment, about the next ball and about how we would combat the Indian players tonight,” Arthur said post Pakistan’s heavy drubbing.
