Pakistan Under-19 Cricketers Mistaken for Migrants in Portsmouth
What began as an ordinary team stopover for Pakistan’s under-19 cricketers in Portsmouth turned tense on Tuesday night, when a group of protesters descended on their hotel after wrongly believing the players were newly arrived migrants.
Around 30 to 40 people gathered outside the Marriott Hotel in Cosham after rumours spread online that a coach carrying migrants had pulled up at the site. It hadn’t. The coach was transporting a touring youth cricket side.
As the crowd formed, some members of the group made their way up to the floor where the Pakistan under-19 squad was staying. According to Sumair Syed, chief operating officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), players reported people knocking on their doors during the disturbance.
Inside the corridor of a Portsmouth hotel, a junior national team suddenly found itself on the front line of Britain’s migration debate.
Syed praised the teenagers for how they handled the situation, stressing that they “behaved responsibly and didn't escalate the situation.” No confrontation followed. No scenes spilled over. The noise stayed on the right side of trouble.
Hampshire Police attended and, after assessing the situation, said officers found no offences had been committed. The crowd had dispersed by about 21:00 BST.
By the next day, the focus for the Pakistan youngsters returned to cricket. Syed confirmed the team went ahead with their scheduled match, underlining their determination to treat the incident as an unwelcome distraction rather than a defining moment of the tour.
Even so, the PCB made its concerns clear. Syed described the episode as “unfortunate” and said he had been in direct contact with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He said the ECB had “assured us that every possible measure should be taken for the security of the escort,” underlining the duty of care owed to visiting teams.
“This is the responsibility of the whole sport to ensure the safety, security and well-being of the visiting team,” he said. “They are on it and we are hopeful that nothing of such sort will happen in the future.”
On the ground in Cosham, Reform county councillor George Madgwick was among those who went to the hotel as the rumours swirled. Once inside, he said staff showed him proof that the guests in question were the Pakistan under-19 touring side, not migrants. He then urged people online not to attend.
Tracing the spark that lit the fuse, Madgwick told the BBC that “someone online saw a group of what looked like foreign nationals leaving the coach and put a photo of it online and that's where it spurred from.”
From a single image to a full-blown misconception.
“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.”
The councillor has since faced criticism over the incident and the reaction it drew. Responding to comments on his Facebook post, he rejected the suggestion that the response to the cricketers’ arrival was racist.
“I think one person made the assumption and everybody else followed that assumption,” he said. “It isn't a good reflection on our city. It's not something I want our city to be known for.”
For the Pakistan under-19s, the tour goes on. The match was played, the runs and wickets recorded, the scoreboard reset. Yet the image of a youth team disturbed in their hotel rooms by strangers acting on a false narrative lingers as a stark reminder of how quickly rumour can turn into real-world pressure on visiting athletes.
