Former Indian cricket team fast bowler S Sreesanth was not pleased with Pakistan Team Director Mickey Arthur's comments regarding the Cricket World Cup 2023 feeling like a "BCCI event" rather than an "ICC event". Following Pakistan's disappointing loss against India, Arthur complained about the lack of support for Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and even alluded to a slight advantage for the Indian cricket team. During an interaction with Sportskeeda, Sreesanth said that it feels like a BCCI event whenever India plays and even insisted that Arthur should be shown the movie '83' with subtitles.
“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,” he added.
Meanwhile, legendary Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram criticised Arthur for his comments.
In a chat on A-Sports, Akram fumed at Arthur, asking what his plan was for his batters to face the mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav. For Akram, the comments Arthur made didn't make any sense.
"Bhaiya hame ye batao aap logo ne kya plan kiya tha? (Brother, tell me what was the plan?) Kuldeep Yadav ko kaese khelna hai? (How did you prepare to play Kuldeep Yadav?) That's what we want to hear. Not this random stuff. You think you can get away with this. No, you can't, unfortunately," he said.