After 0-4 loss, fan barges into Indian dressing room, security review sought

“The fan trespassed into the dressing room, and he was detained by security officials. The boys have been facing serious abuse, especially from the front stalls, throughout the series. Now that the one-day series is over, we plan to review the security situation and request the South African cricket board accordingly,” team sources told this paper.

While Corne Meyer, a spokesperson for Lodge Security company that’s in charge of the SuperSport Park, sought to play down the incident, team sources claimed that the man, allegedly called Nitin, abused Zaheer in the dressing room. Officials confirmed that they will hand over the security report on the incident to Cricket South Africa as soon as they get it.

Meanwhile, a stadium official gave a different angle to the “significant incident”, saying that a provoked Zaheer threw a bottle back at the fan. “The incident is currently being investigated. I believe it was a response by Zaheer towards a criticism that was expressed to him towards the end of the match,” said Elize Lombard, CEO of Northerns Cricket and Titans Cricket Union, headquartered at the Centurion.

That, however, was denied by the team’s media manager Rajan Nair. “I have spoken to Zaheer and he has denied that he was involved in any such incident,” said Nair.

Zaheer Khan, after a brilliant performance in his comeback series, was off-colour today with figures of 7-1-46-0. His dismal day was complete when South African skipper Graeme Smith charged down the pitch and hit him over long-on — where Zaheer fielded for most of the day — for a huge six.

In fact, the Indians have been rattled by the kind of verbal abuse that has been hurled at them from the beginning of the series, even after the first match at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg that was rained off. The abuse, said sources, only worsened with every defeat with India losing the one-day series 0-4 today.