Aussies worried over security and a lack of form (25 May 1999)

25 May 1999

Aussies worried over security and a lack of form

Trevor Chesterfield

London: Bangladesh's maurauding spectators need to be on their best behaviour come Thursday when their countrymen play Australia at Chester-le-Street, just a jog along the road on the A167 from the city of Durham.

Although the result of this World Cup game is important to the Australians, desperate for points and an improved net run rate as they face a shock Group B first round exit, the Aussies are also threatening to boycott future tournament games unless there is increased security surround teams. You cannot blame the, either.

You cannot blame them either. Test swing bowler of the 1970s and 1980s Terry Alderman is a case in point. He carried the mental scars of a serious injury which all but terminated his playing career. He was the victim of a serious injury by unruly spectators in Australia in the early 1980s, the result of which led to a banning of spectators from the field Down Under.

They have also applied this tactic in South Africa with some success after umpires and a couple of players were injured in domestic day/night matches and limited-overs internationals. There is strict security mesaures and errant spectators are whipped off to a police cell.

One of these days, perhaps in this tournament, unthinking spectators in pursuit of what souvenirs they can find are going to be responsible for a similar mischief. What then? Who faces the charges for neglect and crowd control? The county where the game is being played? The England and Wales Cricket Board or the International Cricket Council ... ?

Australian captain Steve Waugh has twice accused organisers of poor marshalling arrangements after matches ended in chaos. And a threat to players emerged when spectators were allowed to charge unimpeded on to the field, in an ugly scramble for any souvenirs they can find.

After the game against Scotland at New Road, in Worcester, Micahel Browning, for the organising committee, asked counties to step up arranegments. But if what we have seen arround the country since then is an example nothing visible seems to have happened.

Now Tim May, of the Australia Players Association, feels it is time to act and has told World Cup organisers to do something about tightening arranegements. Either that or the Aussies are going to pack up and go home.

I do not think there is any dobt that we are getting closer to that stage, said May, a Test off-spinner in his day. The players are going to say, thats it, we are not going on to this ground.

Then what? And who will have to answer to whom?

In three matches the mad stampede by spectators and the enusing madcap, unsightly melee has resulted in ground staff grapping to prevent the theft of stumps, bails and balls. In a couple of cases players (not Australians) are known to have lost caps.

At Headingley, in Leeds, last Sunday, they had enough security, but it was as effective as a water pistol against against a cavalry charge: ineffectual and a waste of funds. At one stage they were standing around giggling and as the match drew to a close they seemed to be more interested in what was taking place in the game than concentrating their energies on trying to prevent the mass raid when Wasim Akram bowled Glen McGrath.

Then again, perhaps the counties should institute theft charges against those spectators pilfering goods for which they have not paid (and a gate charge for a seat does not entitle anyone to steal implements). Arrest and and an appearance in court should follow.

Perhaps the answer is to bring security dogs in to the grounds and for handlers to man the boundary; anyone foolish enough to hop the fence the faces the consequence of being bitten by a dog. Exuberence is one thing; plain stupidity is something else.

It is hard to imagine a more desperate situation for Australia than the one they face over the next five days when they play Bangladesh and then the West Indies, revived and rampant, yet still unconvincing.

Australia's discpline, or lack of it, can be questioned the way they tossed it against the valiant New Zealanders at Cardiff last Thursday.

In a smiliar situation it is doubtful whether Allan Donald would do his own thing without consulting his captain, Hansie Cronje, first. Perhaps it is a matter of individual flair, or a lack of communication skills between Steve Waugh (the captain) and Shane Warne (his deputy).

The scenario is somple enough: Donald bowling to Darren Gough, England need 15 to win with three overs left, two of which Donald is going to bowl. So he decideds to go around the wicket and not over. There has been no pre-match planning to allow for such a radical switch in tactics and Cronje stands, hands on hips and wagging his head.

Does he allow his senior bowling lieutenant to change plan A for something other than the tactics arranged and allow Donald a little indulgence to dabble in an innovation which could lose South Africa the game and a place in the final?

As it is Australia's ineffectual batting has already cost them the game when they failed to post a 250 plus total.

The difference between South Africa (Cronje) and Australia (Tugga Waugh) is that there is close communication and the captain and his teammates and the studious one for all, all for one togetherness and playing for fun is far removed to the Australia's way of doing things.

You can imagine Cronje then. Hey, AD, whats this?

Thought I might give him one in the ribs or chest. Dig it in and make his play a false shot? You know, get a catch?

A bemused Cronje looks as the fast bowler. Want to talk this one through with me? We can lose it from here.

None of this chit-chat, though between Warnie and Tugga. The Kiwis snaffle two points, the Wizards of Oz lose their wand and their Wiz and are under the sort of pressure they could have done without.

It has been that sort of World Cup for some teams.

City Index, a London spread betting company, put out a list of prices of how much you could win (or lose) on the number of wides bowled in this year's World Cup.

Now that may have been an act of bravado by someone in their office who had not followed the limited-overs slogs too closely. After all, the average of 10 wides an innings is not a bad guess if you feed in data from the previous World Cup without taking into account how the wide ball call has chaned. It has become far tighter to the extent that 516 had been signalled after the first 18 games of the tournament.

And they had projected a figure of between 260 and 280 wides. At £5 a throw anyone going above that 280 figure would have climbed in big. Some one has won more than a week's pocket money out of that little sum. But it was always going to be that wides would figure in this year's event.

Being huddled in a duffle coat was one way to keep warm when scribbling notes in the freezing press boxes around Bolton and some other North of England dugout in the late 1950s and early 1960s when covering a variety of winter sporting events.

At least it was acceptable and we thought ourselves a hardy lot. We even accepted temperatures hovering barely above 10 C some January afternoon to earn a crust.

These days huddled in jerseys, jackets and blankets covering World Cup matches from Canterbury to Leeds, Hove and Southampton is enough to wonder if indeed the local meterological office has it right. That the figures projected of 14 C or 19 C are in fact not a mistake and they are anything from 4 C to 9C and the 10 it put there to make us feel a little more comfortable with the conditions.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield