Australian legspinner Shane Warne defended his fellow
Melburnians Wednesday against claims that the Melbourne Cricket Ground was among the worst three cricket arenas in the world for crowd disturbances.
The Australian Cricket Board, Victoria state police and the Melbourne Cricket Club were appealing for calm among Melbourne fans ahead of Sunday’s Australia vs. England limited-overs international at the MCG.
More than 30 people were arrested for varying offences from drunkenness to invading the MCG playing field during matches, while more than 500 were ejected during the last Australian Summer.
ACB chief executive James Sutherland told a news conference on Wednesday that those figures painted the MCG as one of the worst cricket venues for interruptions in play, trespassing and crowd behaviour.
Warne, Australia’s leading all-time wicket-taker, said the fans at his home ground were supportive of the national team and had been unfairly tainted by the allegations.
”I don’t think the Victorian crowds are the worst in the world, definitely not,” Warne said.
”I think the MCG crowd are absolutely sensational. I think they get right behind Australia. I think there’s one or two people all over the world, let alone in Melbourne, who take it over the top.”
As far as the Australian players we concerned, ”we just want to worry about playing cricket on the field and hopefully the spectators come to watch some entertaining cricket,” he said.
A spate of crowd disturbances in India during the recent India-West Indies series prompted the sport’s international governing body to consider banning some venues from hosting limited-overs internationals.
”It’s pretty clear from the International Cricket Council’s point of view that the MCG is in the worst three grounds in the world for crowd behaviour based on the record in the last few years,” Sutherland said.
”There is no doubt that the ICC has taken a much stronger view of poor crowd behaviour and they will shortly be introducing the powers to ban grounds where they don’t meet the (safety and security) standards or they have a record that has been inferior to the required standards in the past.”
The MCG can seat almost 100 000 spectators and often attracts capacity crowds for major cricket and Australian Rules football matches.
Police and ground staff were bolstering security before Sunday’s match, including bag searches at all entrances to the stadium, restricting the sale of alcohol and increasing patrols of the ground. – Sapa-AP