{"id":765132,"date":"2026-09-09T14:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/765132\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T14:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:52:14","slug":"protesters-outside-portsmouth-hotel-confuse-pakistan-u19-cricket-team-for-asylum-seekers-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/765132\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters outside Portsmouth hotel confuse Pakistan U19 cricket team for asylum seekers | Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anti-immigration protesters gathered outside a Portsmouth<\/a> hotel were forced to cancel their demonstration after discovering the Pakistan Under-19 cricket team rather than a group of asylum seekers were staying there.<\/p>\n

Portsmouth had been the site of a large protest<\/a> on Sunday following the arrival of a large dinghy containing an estimated 140 asylum seekers at the city\u2019s Eastney harbour. A black-clad vigilante group attempted to block the streets around the port to stop the arrivals from leaving the area.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the prime minister, Andy Burnham, condemned the demonstrators\u2019 \u201cintimidating and thuggish behaviour<\/a>\u201d, while Burnham pledged to stop the \u201cpolitics of poison seeping into our streets\u201d. That protest ended in the early hours of Monday morning after police obtained a dispersal order and threatened arrests.<\/p>\n

With tensions still high the following day, the presence of a coach and a number of young Asian men at the city\u2019s Marriott Hotel was circulated online and brought protestors back to the streets, leading to George Madgwick, leader of the Reform UK group on Hampshire county council, being called to the scene. In a now-deleted Facebook post he wrote that after arriving he spoke to the hotel manager, who explained the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hotel explained it was a Pakistani cricket team staying. The team coach came to speak to me personally and I saw proof,\u201d Madgwick wrote. \u201cI then went to speak to the crowd gathering of 40-50 people and confirmed with them and assured them that it was a cricket team. Immediately the crowd respectfully accepted that. Within five minutes they were gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I could do my bit to help the situation and stop tensions rising. But the government need to understand why things like this happen. It\u2019s not because the protestors and crowds are bad people. Local residents jut want to protect the city they love in the best way they know how.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism<\/a> told the Portsmouth News: \u201cAllowing racists to mobilise like this every time they become suspicious of any group of non-white people is extremely dangerous. It is racism in action and it has to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the incident the England and Wales Cricket<\/a> Board has contacted the Pakistan Cricket Board to check on the wellbeing of those involved, and is reviewing security arrangements for the remainder of the under-19 squad\u2019s tour.<\/p>\n

The team played England Under-19s in a four-day Test last week, losing by 10 runs, and are playing a one-day game against the same opponents on Wednesday at Arundel, around 25 miles from Portsmouth. A final game, also an ODI, is scheduled to be played in Guildford on Saturday. Pakistan\u2019s senior men\u2019s team is also in the country, playing the third and final Test against England at Edgbaston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-immigration protesters gathered outside a Portsmouth hotel were forced to cancel their demonstration after discovering the Pakistan Under-19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-765132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}