Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team became the focus of an anti-immigration gathering outside a Portsmouth hotel after online speculation wrongly identified the touring squad as asylum seekers.
Around 30 to 40 people gathered outside the Marriott Hotel in Cosham on Tuesday evening after a coach carrying the players was seen arriving.
BPI News spoke to members of the coaching staff, who said the reaction within the squad was more one of confusion about what was happening than worry. They said everyone was safe and that, in their assessment, nobody had been in danger at any point.
Police attended and explained to the crowd that the information prompting the gathering was incorrect. Hampshire Constabulary said no offences were identified.
A Photograph and a False Assumption
George Madgwick, a Reform UK councillor who leads the party’s group on Hampshire County Council, went to the hotel after being contacted about the gathering.
He said hotel management explained that the guests were Pakistan’s touring cricketers. He also spoke to a member of the coaching staff and was shown confirmation of the team’s identity.
Madgwick then urged people on Facebook not to attend the hotel.
Speaking to the BBC, he said the incident began after someone posted a photograph online of people getting off a coach and assumed they were migrants.
“It was mere speculation rather than based on truth or fact,” he said.
“In this case they have made a grave error, a grave mistake.”
According to his account to the Guardian, several people in the crowd wore balaclavas or other face coverings. He said those gathered left after he explained that they had mistaken a cricket team for asylum seekers.
Coaching Staff Say the Squad Was Safe
Members of the coaching staff told BPI News there had been confusion over why people were gathering outside.
They said the team remained safe throughout and did not describe the incident as one in which the players felt threatened. Their account offers some reassurance about the squad’s immediate wellbeing, although the gathering has prompted wider questions about the circumstances in which visiting players were singled out.
The England and Wales Cricket Board reportedly contacted the Pakistan Cricket Board to check on those involved and began reviewing security arrangements for the remainder of the tour.
The Marriott Hotel Portsmouth declined to comment to the BBC.
What Police Said
Hampshire Constabulary said officers were alerted shortly before 6.30pm on Tuesday to people gathering near the hotel.
Officers spoke to members of the public who were concerned about a coach seen in the area and explained that their concerns were based on incorrect information.
Police put the crowd at approximately 30 people and said it had dispersed shortly before 9pm. No offences were identified.
The police account did not itself identify the cricketers as the subject of the mistaken reports. That detail emerged through the accounts of the councillor and subsequent reporting.
Two Days After Protests in Portsmouth
The hotel gathering followed unrest in Portsmouth on Sunday, when a boat carrying approximately 120 migrants was brought ashore.
Hundreds of protesters blocked roads, and police began investigating possible assaults and criminal damage arising from that separate incident.
Portsmouth North Labour MP Amanda Martin said the people brought ashore on Sunday had been taken outside Hampshire for processing.
She described the targeting of the young cricketers through misinformation as unacceptable and also raised concern for hotel employees who had to deal with the gathering.
“There is a legitimate debate to be had about immigration, but it must be based on facts not misinformation or rumour,” she said.
Councillor Rejects Racism Accusation
Madgwick denied that the response to the cricketers’ arrival had been racist, saying one person appeared to have made an assumption that others then followed.
He nevertheless acknowledged that the incident reflected badly on Portsmouth.
“It’s not something I want our city to be known for,” he told the BBC.
In his comments to the Guardian, Madgwick linked the reaction to heightened local tensions following Sunday’s events. He said the coach was reportedly from the same company used to transport those who had arrived by boat.
That explanation did not establish any connection between the team and asylum accommodation.
Stand Up To Racism national organiser Michael Bradley condemned the gathering, arguing that it showed how hostility towards migrants could extend to black and Asian people simply arriving in the city.
He warned that treating a visiting Pakistan youth team as a potential target because of assumptions about its identity risked encouraging further racism.
The ECB’s reported security review covers the remainder of the squad’s tour. Coaching staff, meanwhile, told BPI News that everyone involved was safe.
