Pakistan Cricket Board’s complaint against unruly crowd in IND vs PAK match in Ahmedabad is likely to fall on deaf ears. PCB lodged a formal complaint to the ICC after a section of the fans heckled Mohammad Rizwan at the Narendra Modi Stadium. While ICC has remained silent so far, an action may be a far cry.
The reason is simple: Unlike FIFA, the ICC’s anti-discrimination code does not include a group. It only applies to individuals.
Hostile crowd
With more than one lakh fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium present at the stadium, Babar Azam & Co found no support. Only 3 Pakistani-American fans were present to support the team. And when Babar Azam came out for the toss, he was greeted by the Ahmedabad crowd with jeers.
Every action from the Pakistani team was met with hostility. But one incident particularly that caught everyone’s attention was when Mohammad Rizwan was returning to the pavilion having been dismissed. A section of the Ahmedabad crowd heckled Rizwan with religious chants.
Pakistan’s Director of Cricket Mickey Arthur admitted that his players were overawed by the hostile crowd. Soon, Pakistan Cricket Board lodged a complaint to the ICC on the unruly crowd behaviour.
PCB’s complaint to ICC
As per a PTI report, even though the ICC has taken cognisance of the complaint, any action is unlikely.
“The ICC takes every complaint very seriously but code is about individuals. I don’t know what exactly is PCB looking at but it will be very difficult to take any tangible action,” a veteran official, who has worked in both BCCI and ICC told PTI.
The reason for inaction could be attributed to the absence of policy that holds the entire organiser responsible. In football, FIFA can take action against a federation and ban crowd presence entirely in case of racism or political chants. But in cricket, ICC only identifies individuals responsible for unruly behaviour. Especially when there was no racism and missile hurled at Pakistani team, any action is unlikely.
“The ICC may identify individuals if there are charges of racism but if thousands of people are shouting a slogan, what can you do? No player was injured by any ‘missile’ hurled from the gallery? A partisan crowd is expected. That’s pressure of elite sport,” the official added.
