JOHANNESBURG, Aug 13: South Africa will dig moats around the twelve grounds to be used for next year’s cricket World Cup to prevent spectators invading the pitch, the country’s cricket board executive director Ali Bacher said Tuesday.

On Saturday, a spectator at the rugby union Tri-Nations clash between South Africa and New Zealand in Durban got onto the ground where he attacked Irish referee David McHugh.

The official suffered a dislocated shoulder in the incident.

“The decision to build the moats was taken nine months ago, so it is not a reaction to the weekend’s incident,” Bacher told the Johannesburg-based Star.

“At the 1999 World Cup in England and the Netherlands, there were a number of pitch invasions. We simply can’t have that.

“Not only is there a chance of injury to players or officials, as we saw on Saturday at the rugby, but an invasion also discredits the country.”

The moats, which will cost some 70,000 dollars, will be about 1.5 metres (five feet) wide and filled with mesh netting designed to trap anyone trying to get on to the field, the Star reported.

Closed-circuit television cameras will also be installed at all the grounds, at a cost of some 400,000 dollars to monitor spectator activity.—AFP