The protesters arrived looking for a fight. They left when they found a cricket team.
Outside the Marriott Hotel in Portsmouth, anti-immigration demonstrators gathered on Monday convinced they had located another group of asylum seekers housed in the city. A coach outside, a cluster of young Asian men inside, and social media whispers were enough to drag people back onto the streets less than 24 hours after a volatile stand-off at Eastney harbour.
This time, though, the supposed “threat” turned out to be Pakistan Under-19s.
From harbour flashpoint to hotel stand-off
Portsmouth had already been on edge. On Sunday, a large dinghy carrying an estimated 140 asylum seekers arrived at Eastney harbour, triggering a major protest. A black-clad vigilante group tried to choke off the streets around the port, attempting to stop the new arrivals from leaving the area.
The scenes drew a sharp response from Downing Street. A spokesperson for the prime minister, Andy Burnham, condemned what they called “intimidating and thuggish behaviour”, while Burnham himself vowed to stop “the politics of poison seeping into our streets”. Police eventually moved in, securing a dispersal order and warning of arrests. The protest finally broke up in the early hours of Monday.
The anger did not disappear with it. By the following day, rumours were circulating again.
A coach parked at the Marriott. Young Asian men seen entering and leaving. Images and claims shared online at speed. Within hours, protesters had reassembled outside the hotel, convinced another group of asylum seekers had been quietly moved into the city.
Among those called to the scene was George Madgwick, leader of the Reform UK group on Hampshire county council. In a Facebook post since deleted, Madgwick described what he found when he walked through the doors.
“The hotel explained it was a Pakistani cricket team staying. The team coach came to speak to me personally and I saw proof,” he wrote.
Madgwick said he then stepped back outside to address the 40–50 people who had gathered.
“I 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.
“I’m 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’s not because the protestors and crowds are bad people. Local residents just want to protect the city they love in the best way they know how.”
One conversation with a hotel manager. One meeting with a team coach. And a protest that had threatened to flare up again simply melted away.
‘Racism in action’
Anti-racism campaigners saw something else in the episode.
A spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism told the Portsmouth News: “Allowing 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.”
The image is stark: a group of teenage cricketers, in England to play a youth tour, suddenly finding themselves the focus of a hostile demonstration because of how they look and where they come from.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has since contacted the Pakistan Cricket Board to check on the wellbeing of the players and staff involved. The ECB is also reviewing security arrangements for the rest of the Under-19s’ stay.
Cricket amid the noise
On the field, Pakistan Under-19s are in the middle of a full tour. They played England Under-19s in a four-day Test last week, losing by just 10 runs in a tight contest. On Wednesday they face the same opponents in a one-day match at Arundel, around 25 miles from Portsmouth, before a final ODI in Guildford on Saturday.
Pakistan’s senior men’s side is also in the country, contesting the third and final Test against England at Edgbaston.
So the coach outside the Marriott was not a covert transfer of asylum seekers. It was a familiar sight in any English summer: a touring cricket team on the road, teenagers chasing a dream.
In Portsmouth this week, that ordinary detail collided with a febrile political climate and an atmosphere primed to see threat where there was none. The players will move on to Arundel and Guildford, to runs, wickets and scorecards.
The question is whether the city – and the country – can move on as quickly as they did.
