S Sreesanth responded to Mickey Arthur‘s comment about the India-Pakistan match in the 2023 World Cup, suggesting that Arthur should watch the Bollywood movie “83” to gain a better understanding of the history and effort behind the rise of the Indian cricket board to the top.
In the 12th match of the 2023 ODI World Cup, India defeated Pakistan by seven wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14. Pakistan, after being 155/2, crumbled to a total of 191 runs.
India successfully pursued the target in 30.3 overs, with captain Rohit Sharma making an impressive 86 runs off 63 balls. During the match, Pakistan Team Director Arthur raised concerns about the absence of Pakistani fans at the high-profile game and expressed his opinion that the event resembled a BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) event.
In response to Arthur’s comment, Sreesanth shared his thoughts with Sportskeeda:
“Wherever India plays, it never seems like an ICC event is going on. It will always seem like a BCCI event. We should show him [Arthur] the movie 83 with subtitles. Then he can understand where BCCI was and where it is now. The journey is very important. It’s a motivational and inspirational story.”
“BCCI has risen to the top on its own with much difficulty . The administrators and players are very good now. Even if our C team plays in the World Cup, it would be a brilliant team. What will the ICC say? All the revenues and everything.”
”Would Mickey Arthur have said the same thing if the World Cup was being held in England? Even when I played in Durban for two years, I felt I was in India,” the former India pacer added.
Visa delays prevented Pakistan fans from attending the highly anticipated 2023 World Cup match in Ahmedabad. Media reports indicated that only a few Pakistani journalists were able to be present at the game.
“There’s always criticisms from various quarters” – ICC responds to Arthur’s statement
In response to Arthur’s remarks, the ICC minimized the controversy and noted that every event faces criticism. ICC Chairman Greg Barclay, while attending the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai, was quoted as saying by AFP:
“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,” he concluded.
In the 2023 World Cup points table, India currently holds the top position with three wins in three games. Pakistan is placed fourth with two wins and one loss.
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