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| November 8, 2002 | Friday | Ramazan 2,1423 |
Gavaskar urges venues ban
MUMBAI, Nov 7: Sunil Gavaskar wants Indian grounds with crowd problems to be banned from staging international cricket.
The former Indian Test batsman was speaking after a match in Jamshedpur was stopped for 10 minutes due to unruly crowd behaviour,
The crowd, fearing an Indian defeat, threw bottles onto the field and lit fires in the stands.
Match referee Mike Procter initially abandoned play and awarded the game to the West Indies.
But rival players persuaded him to allow the final three overs to be completed.
The West Indies went on to win by four wickets as Ramnaresh Sarwan hit a last-ball boundary off Ajit Agarkar to help his team surpass India’s challenging 283-6.
“Crowds that cannot accept an Indian defeat should get no cricket whatsoever,” said Gavaskar, who heads world governing body’s cricket committee.
“The Indian board must seriously start thinking of banning venues where there is crowd disturbance.”
He also called for them to consider fining staging association for not ensuring proper conduct of the match.
Ironically, Bihar Cricket Asociation, which hosted Wednesday’s match, is headed by a former police chief of the state, Amitabh Chowdhury.
Procter will report the match to the International Cricket Council (ICC) which said it was committed to safeguarding safety of players.
“The ICC and representatives of Boards and players are working together to ensure that every country has in place effective safety and security plans at all venues.”
Only two venues in India, Mohali in north and Madras in south have untarnished records. Calcutta’s Eden Gardens has twice in last eight years encountered serious trouble.—PPI
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