Crowd trouble ‘non-issue’ with CAB

The washed out one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka back in February at the Eden Gardens may have sunk into oblivion for many cricket enthusiasts. But that is certainly...

The washed out one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka back in February at the Eden Gardens may have sunk into oblivion for many cricket enthusiasts. But that is certainly not the case with the International Cricket Council (ICC), which decided to get cracking after ICC Match Referee for the fateful ODI, Alan Hurst, lodged a stinging complaint over a direct threat from Eden’s agitating spectators.

Weeks after heavy rains washed out the February 8 day-nighter after 18 overs into the match, Australian match referee Hurst formally shot off a complaint to the ICC, narrating how a section of Eden’s crowd almost surrounded his vehicle, on its way out of the ground that evening, and posed a security threat.

Hurst is learnt to have given the ICC a detailed account of how the official vehicle, carrying him and the four umpires, came under a possible threat from some agitated spectators, some of whom reportedly tried to create trouble.

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However, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) appears to have acted swiftly in settling the matter once and for all. Following Hurst’s complaint to the ICC, the world body recently sought an explanation from the Indian cricket Board. The BCCI, in turn, forwarded the ICC’s letter to the CAB last week, following which the state association’s

president Prasun Mukherjee quickly explained his side of the story to the BCCI and “settled the matter”.

“I wrote to the BCCI recently and explained what had happened, that such incidents are commonplace in this part of the world when matches are washed out, and it’s not something to make an issue of,” the Kolkata Police Commissioner told The Indian Express this evening. “I was told that in the match referee’s complaint, he narrated how some agitated spectators tried to thump on the car bonnet, or something to that effect. It’s not a serious issue. As things stand, the matter is settled and the chapter is closed,” the CAB chief summed up.

After 18 overs into the match that afternoon with Sri Lanka batting first, heavy showers played spoilsport, even as nearly one-third of the 80,000 spectators eagerly waited in the stands for over three hours into the evening, hoping for the match to restart.