Following is a great article!
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Cricket ashamed!
Lenin Gani - 13 November 2002
What a shame that the third one-day international between India and West Indies had to be decided in the most unusual of circumstances.
The ugly side of a crowd once again was in full view spoiling a perfectly good game. There was crowd trouble also in the earlier matches, but nothing like on the scale witnessed in Rajkot yesterday.
Ironically that although this time with the home side very much in the driving seat, a mindless few went too far and injured two West Indies players.
This is cannot be cricket. People pay money in expectation of an exciting contest between bat and ball but so far in the seven-match series, there has only been trouble followed by more trouble.
Enthusiasm knows no limits in this part of the world. But this passion for the sport is fuelling another terrible aspect – crowd disturbances.
A semifinal of the 1996 World Cup between Sri Lanka and India saw the Eden Gardens virtually set ablaze by unhappy fans as Aravinda da Silva spoilt the script with a masterly knock. And match referee Clive Lloyd had to declare the eventual champions the winners as things got out of control. Four years on, another mischievous crowd trouble came into play at this very venue during the Asian Test Championship match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. However, result was not the same. The whole number of spectators was driven out of the famous cricket centre and the game went on.
Cricket is becoming more global year-by-year, yet, at the same time supporters unfortunately only in India find it necessary to become hooligans. We always thought that football was a victim of its success, but, cricket is not far behind.
The recent incidents in our giant neighbour’s backyard have even prompted calls for a boycott of unruly venues by none other than its famous son Sunil Gavaskar.
“Crowds that cannot accept an Indian defeat should get no cricket whatsoever,” opined the Indian legend the day after the first ODI in Jamshedpur.
“The Indian board must seriously start thinking of not only banning venues where there is crowd disturbance, but also heavily fine the staging association for not ensuring proper conduct of the match.”
His view was shared by Indian board chief Jagmohan Dalmiya and he said the BCCI would have to think hard before allotting international matches to disturbance-prone venues. But all their words seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Trouble continued to travel with the teams as they proceeded to Nagpur three days later.
Thankfully, Bangladesh despite its arduous struggle to establish a name in international cricket, it can at least claim to already have sporting fans. They show their support without getting overboard and every visiting team is invited to give their verdict on this issue.
© Daily Star **
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