• Sport
• Pakistan v England 2011-12

Abu Dhabi denies 'racial-segregation policy' for second Test crowd

• Families-only area forced Pakistan supporters elsewhere
• England supporters on the opposite side of the ground

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• Andy Wilson in Abu Dhabi
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 January 2012 22.02 GMT
• Article history


Pakistani fans congregate on a grass bank for the third day of the second Test in Abu Dhabi, which allowed free entry. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

The Abu Dhabi authorities staging the second Test between England and Pakistan have denied there was any racial segregation or discrimination in their use of a families-only section on one side of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

There was a stark contrast between the grass bank on one side of the ground which filled up with thousands of Pakistan supporters, mostly young men, and the "hill" opposite which was much more sparsely populated. It had been designated a "families-only area", which ruled it out of bounds for the majority of the Pakistan supporters in the ground, and was mostly populated by England supporters – although there were some families with young children wearing Pakistan shirts.

However, there were no restrictions on the seating in the main stands at either end of the ground – with free admission to all but the corporate areas – and Pakistanis, England supporters and others seemed to mingle happily throughout the third day of the match, which attracted a crowd officially estimated at 14,000, far more than has attended any of the previous five days of the series.

A spokesperson for the ground authorities, responding on the BBC's Test Match Special to a complaint of racial segregation in the family enclosure, said: "Any spectator arriving with wife or child would have been allowed to sit on the grass bank allocated for family use. There was no segregation on the basis of race."

Dilawar Mani, the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi club, later added, in response to a complaint on the Pakpassion.net website: "I can only assure you in that trying to separate the English fans from Pakistani supporters had absolutely nothing to do with racism. I am disappointed that you would imply that to be the case.

"You may not be aware that very often, when you find large communities gathering at a stadium, a separation policy is adopted to mitigate confrontation and any threat to either community by an emotionally charged and passionate segment of fans."