Cricket is referred to as the ‘Gentleman’s game’. But there had been some unexpected incidents which were not so gentlemanly and brought disgrace to the game of cricket.
Apart from the players, the stadium crowd have had their share too who were mostly embarrassed by their home team, match officials and opposing players. The recent crowd violence in the India-South Africa T20I match in Cuttack is an example of this trend.
Let’s have a look at some of such ugly crowd moments that shamed cricket:
1. India Vs Pakistan (Eden Gardens, 1999)
It was the moment of Asian Test Championship and India-Pakistan match are always of high intensity. A not much less than 1 Lakh crowd in the galleries were cheering for Sachin, who was run-out controversially after colliding with Shoaib Akhtar.
The crowd started chanting ‘cheat-cheat’ which became louder and intensified. The crowd started throwing shoes and bottles at Shoaib Akhtar when he came to field at the deep.
The umpires had to break early for tea, and Sachin and Jagmohan Dalmia came out to request the crowds to calm down.
The unrest started again when India was thrashed to 231-9, a few spectators started burning newspapers, throwing fruits and bottles into the ground. Then the whole crowd were forcefully evacuated by the police force and the play was resumed.
2. PAK vs AUS (Lords, 2001)
The Australian team won the 2001 Natwest Final in Lords against Pakistan but the presentation ceremony was cut short after an ugly incident. A full beer can was thrown at the Aussies (perhaps by a Pakistani fan). That can hit Michael Bevan’s face hard. Skipper Steve Waugh soon got his team off the place.
In the post-match interview Michael Bevan said: “It”s very sad, but maybe, in a way, you can turn it into a positive. Maybe we”ve reached the lowest point with the spectators, and something will be done and it will be recognized that there are problems, and precautions have got to be taken.”
3. Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka (Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, 2015)
Match referee was forced to suspend play for half an hour in an ODI between Pakistan and Sri Lanka after a rock was thrown onto the field at the Premadasa Stadium. The incident came after fights had broken out in a section of the stands between two country’s fans.
As the two factions got physical with each other, anti-riot police had to be called in.4 people were later arrested.
Mahela Jayawardena tweeted, “We should take results in correct spirit and enjoy the game. Very poor from some spectators. Hope it doesn”t reflect on all SL fans.”
4. India Vs Sri Lanka (Semi Final, WC 1996, Eden Gardens)
India’s World Cup dreams shattered after the home team were slumped to a humiliating 120/8 in the 35th over chasing 251. The embarrassed Indian fans started throwing bottles into the field.
Newspapers were being burnt at the galleries. In that case Clive Lloyd, the match referee awarded to the match to Sri Lanka. Helpless Vinod Kambli, India’s batsman at the crease broke down into tears as Lankan players started celebrating.
5. India Vs South Africa (Cuttack, 2015)
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui)
There is definitely a reason why there are so many restrictions on the items you can carry inside the stadium, including the very harmless water bottles and soda cans. Crowd trouble was witnessed on Monday (2nd T20I) at Cuttack as a section of the crowd started throwing bottles on the ground as India were stepping towards defeat in the 2nd T20I against South Africa, forcing play to be suspended not once, but twice.
On the first occasion, the play was forced to suspend for 27 minutes. After play resumed, two overs were bowled but yet again the crowd repeated the disgraceful act. Play was paused again and during this, the entire upper tier had to be evacuated before South Africa could finally win comfortably.