AHMEDABAD: Pakistan’s head coach Grant Bradburn has echoed Mickey Arthur’s views on the one-sided atmosphere at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday during the Pakistan vs India game in the ICC Cricket World Cup.
India defeated Pakistan in front of 130,000 spectators and 99.9 per cent of spectators in the stadium were cheering for the home side.
While Mickey Arthur spoke about the issue during the press conference saying the encounter looked like a bilateral event instead of an ICC event, Bradburn shared his views on the sidelines during the mixed-zone interaction.
“Naturally, that was going to be the case,” he said when asked about the atmosphere in the stadium.
“We're really sad that our supporters aren't here. They would love to be here. And I'm sure Indian cricket fans would love to have our supporters here as well. So, it was certainly unusual that way. No familiar music for us today. So, it did not feel like a World Cup game, in all honesty. But look, we didn't expect anything else. We loved the occasion. And we're disappointed that we didn't do justice to the occasion and justice to our how many fans at home and globally” he said.
“We've played probably in the biggest stadium in India, in front of a 100 per cent opposition crowd. So, those are good experiences that we'll take on board. Wherever we go now in the World Cup it's not going to be perhaps as intimidating as it might have been for some, but I don't think that was an issue for our boys. We wanted to really come and show our skills today and the saddest thing is that we left some of the skills in the shed,” the Pakistan head coach added.
Replying to a question, Bradburn said that he would have liked the team to be a little bit more aggressive and the boys didn’t play the brand of cricket he was expecting them to play.
He added that they were hurt in the dressing room.
“We didn't come here to lose, losing is not part of the plan. So, we'll reflect on that as we reflect on every game. We reflect when we won, and we reflect when we lose, we've reflected on two wins and now we'll reflect on a loss. But I think there's lots to take away from today. I think some of the skills that we know are in the boys had didn't come out today,” he added.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.