The busload of “migrants” pulling up to a Portsmouth hotel on Tuesday evening was a busload of teenage cricketers.

Roughly 30 to 40 people had gathered outside the Marriott on Southampton Road in Cosham on September 8 after social-media claims that a group of asylum seekers was arriving by coach, Portsmouth News reported. The guests were the Pakistan under-19 national cricket team, in England for a Youth Test and a four-match Youth ODI series.

George Madgwick, who leads the Reform UK group on Hampshire County Council, initially urged supporters to attend in a Facebook post, then deleted it and told them to stay away after being shown proof of who the arrivals actually were.

“I visited the manager and the hotel explained it was the Pakistani cricket team staying,” Madgwick wrote in the follow-up post, adding that the original speculation online had been based on people seeing “a group of what looked like foreign nationals leaving the coach”.

Read also: Huge debt crisis in China causes Tour of Guangxi cancellation

He said he then spoke to the crowd and confirmed the guests were cricketers, and that within five minutes everyone had gone.

Two days after the Eastney landing

The gathering came 48 hours after a much larger protest in the city, on Sunday, September 6, sparked by the arrival of an RNLI vessel that brought around 140 migrants ashore at Eastney.

Amanda Martin, the Labour MP for Portsmouth North, called Tuesday’s scene “deeply concerning”.

“It’s completely unacceptable that misinformation has led to young cricketers being wrongly targeted,” Martin said.

Read also: 'If it's difficult, you call José': Mourinho's Real Madrid return begins with a night of chaos

Responding to criticism under his own Facebook post, Madgwick denied the reaction to the cricketers’ arrival had been racist.

ECB reviewing tour security

The England and Wales Cricket Board has checked on the wellbeing of the Pakistan under-19 squad and is reviewing security arrangements for the rest of the tour, the BBC reported.

The touring party is captained by right-hand batter Farhan Yousaf. The tour opened with a Youth Test at Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground from September 2 to 5, which England won by 10 runs, and the first of four Youth ODIs is scheduled at the same venue on Wednesday, September 9.

Read also: Prosecutors win four-month delay in Billups poker fraud trial

Read also: Manchester United's £70m Baleba signing splits the club's own legends