Confusion at Portsmouth Hotel: Pakistan Under-19s Mistaken for Migrants

What began as an ordinary evening for Pakistan’s under-19 cricketers in Portsmouth turned uneasy in a matter of minutes, after a group of protesters descended on their hotel having wrongly assumed the teenagers were newly arrived migrants.

Around 30 to 40 people gathered outside the Marriott Hotel in Cosham on Tuesday night, drawn by false rumours circulating online that a coach carrying migrants had pulled up at the entrance. Instead, it was the young touring side, in England to play cricket.

The tension moved from the car park to the corridors. Sumair Syed, chief operating officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), said members of the squad reported people knocking on their doors during the disturbance. The players, he stressed, kept their composure.

“They behaved responsibly and didn't escalate the situation,” Syed said, underlining how the teenagers chose calm over confrontation in a setting that should have been a secure base, not a flashpoint.

Hampshire Police were called to the scene. Officers established that no offences had been committed, and the crowd broke up by about 21:00 BST. No arrests, no charges – just a lingering sense of how quickly rumour can spill into real-world intimidation.

The following day, the cricketers did what they had come to England to do. They played their scheduled match, attempting to park the previous night’s drama and return to the routine of nets, team talks and competition.

Syed described the episode as “unfortunate” but made it clear the PCB expects strong reassurances. He said he was in contact with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which had “assured us that every possible measure should be taken for the security of the escort.”

“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.”

Inside the hotel, staff moved quickly to cool the situation. Reform county councillor George Madgwick, who went to the scene, said employees showed him proof that the guests in question were the Pakistan under-19 touring party. He then took to social media to urge people not to attend or inflame the situation further.

Speaking to the BBC, Madgwick traced the chain reaction back to a single online post.

“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,” he said. “It was mere speculation rather than based on truth or fact.

“In this case they have made a grave error, a grave mistake.”

The councillor has since faced a wave of criticism and scrutiny over his Facebook post about the incident, including accusations that the reaction to the team’s arrival had been racially motivated. Madgwick rejected that characterisation.

“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 young Pakistan players, the message from their board is clear: the tour goes on, but their safety must be guaranteed. For Portsmouth, the questions linger: how did one misjudged photograph and a few reckless words online bring protesters to the doors of a junior cricket team? And what happens the next time a coach pulls up outside that hotel?