Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
1

Well..I am referring to the “monkey chants” against Symonds in Vadodara and Mumbai…and I believe some racial insults were also made against South Africans in PAK.

ICC has reportedly taken this up with the respective boards…but my question is …How much of control does a Cricket Board really have on Crowd Behavior ?

Apparently, the dudes making those Monkey antics in Mumbai have been arrested…but what exactly would be the charge against them…I don’t know.

Racial taunts, ridicule…etc are part and parcel of desi society…Sardar Jokes for example…and people generally accept it as such. Otherwise somebody like Harbhajan Singh may feel subjected to racism eveytime he stands near the boundary line.

I have seen International cricket matches in Delhi…where even Indian cricketers were freely abused from the stands…and those were the worst kind of abuses one can think of.

In a stadium with 50,000 noisy people…how much dandaaa can the police really weild…and the offenders even if caught , in the worst case scenario, would get away with a slap in the wrist in the chaotic desi setup…

…so where is the deterrant ?

The monkeys in the Mumbai Crowd (snapped by an Australian Photographer as per Cricinfo) :

2

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Symonds is hurt

The topic of Andrew Symonds being subjected to racial abuse was once again at the forefront in the final one-day international of the series at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. An Australian photographer captured on camera certain spectators in the North Stand enacting monkey chants, a complaint that had been first made during the fifth one-dayer at Vadodara last week.

The matter was brought to the notice of Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, by the Australian team management, and Broad later confirmed to Cricinfo that action had been taken against the miscreants. “I saw the photograph and have sent an official report to the ICC,” he said.

Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, said the team was disappointed that the same behaviour had been repeated at various grounds. “Andrew is hurt at the crowd behaviour but we’ve been told action has been taken,” he said. “But some of the stuff that happens is totally unacceptable and leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. I’m sure there are a lot of people in India that would be embarrassed by the incident.”

The deputy commissioner of police Brijesh Singh confirmed there had been some misbehaviour: “We have booked the four under Sec 110 [behaving indecently in public] of Bombay Police Act for misbehaviour,” he told PTI. However, he didn’t elaborate on the exact nature of misconduct, and didn’t specify if any racial comments had been made by the crowd.

The incident happened just hours after Sharad Pawar and Creagh O’Connor, the respective presidents of the BCCI and Cricket Australia, issued a joint statement saying there was no place for racism in cricket. Symonds lasted just one ball in the match, falling to Murali Kartik, but was booed vociferously both during his walks to and from the pitch.

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/indvaus/content/current/story/315911.html

3

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

i think its abuse but i dont understand why its being referred to as racist??

ive seen matches in sharjah, things get out of hand...

i personally think, it was started by a misunderstanding (or it could be 1 or 2 people) in other match, and then indian media blew it up like crazy, so now whole public knows about it, therefore you see monkey taunts in last match

they should just keep this stuff off the media, i think the media just spurs desi crowds on...

4

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

you answered that by yourself :)

  • did u guys watch presentation ceremony? symonds seemed upset that crowd was booing him, was little annoyed. On the other hand, crowd was cheering Brett Lee.
5

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Cricket Boards cannot have any control.

The only way it can be controlled is to not stage a international match there.

But then much more heinous crimes have been committed like throwing bottles and stopping the match - if those cannot stop the Cricket board from boycotting the city these certainly wont.

I have in past really felt ashamed by the Mumbai crowd - I watched India - Windies and India - SA matches - In the Windies match they abused Merwyn Dillon to no end. Merwyn is a nigger Merwyn is a ******* Merwyn is a black asshole etc

In the SA match Andre Nel was targetted with 'Nel is a *******'

6

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

indian fans

they are a breed apart

7

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

one of them was ejected later in the match by the police. Unfortunately for this guy, he was captured after that picture was taken and became available by the aussie photographer otherwise it could have gone unnoticed.

This thing is not new except that now it is happening to Australia. It has happened in the past in Australia when players from NZ, South Africa have been abused by the crowd. Murali have been singled out. Ganday unday hur jaga hotay hain. However it is important that authorities as soon as they notice them should deal with them immediately and thus set an example.

8

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

I think this monky chant is not racism issue but yes It can be called harrassment of a player. If it was racism then all of them team would be booed. Fact that it was only Andy Symond tell us it just him , not white not Australians. No matter how politically correct we become here, fact is that there are some player who are considered rude , arrogant or cheaters and they are the one who are usually harrassed. For example.. People like Symonds, SreeSanth, Peterson and Nel etc have very high chances of getting harrased on tour depending upon how they behave on that tour. I remember our own Ravi Shastri was always booed no matter how good he played. Where as Kapil and Azhar were always darling of crowd even when they didnot perform. It was a lot to do with how they behaved in public.

I am not suggesting that harrassment should be allowed. All I am saying that to some extent player's behaviour is also responsible. That is the reason Symonds is targetted but not Gilli or Lee.

PS: ..I am glad Murali was tagetted in AUS.Cheaters should always be treated like that. :D

9

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Monkey chant is a very racist issue
In football blacks have been abused all the time, especially in eastern Europe
they have had chanting, bananas, peanuts thrown at them.

It is very deragatory, nobody should be treated like animals, and there is no place for this in the world, especially in cricket.

I hope serious penalties are brought in

10

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Have seen all sorts of abuse towards Aussie players dring matches in Pakistan, but good thing for them they don't understand Punjabi. Remember an incident in Lahore.

Mcdermat was fielding near the boundary and few boyz in stands were saying.

"Mc-da-mat"

"Tha"

"Mc-da-mat"

"Tha"

And after a few chants, one says, "Paat gaye so"

11

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

You can not absolve the boards or the desis of this horrendous behavior just because it is the norm in the society. It was normal in pre-Kennedy US to make fun of blacks but times have changed. India is probably lagging by 50 years but it is time to get on board and stop racially abusing others. If Indian authorities can NOT handle it then visiting teams might stop coming.

And what about India being a tolerant and accepting society image it portrays around the world?

12

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Every country has its share of idiots/morons. We are a nation of 1 Billion, so even 10% of them, means we have 100 Million idiots/morons.

As per the topic on hand, here is what I am trying to say :
Every second , somewhere in India , a Sardar/Marwari/Baniyaa/Bengali/Bihari/UP Bhaiya/"Madrasi"/Gujrati etc is being "racially" taunted in public. Even the comedy in our movies often insinuate the same.

So unless the law says that "racial taunts" against a Gora is a punishable offense but the same against fellow countrymen is not - I don't see how any of the guys who made those gestures against Symonds can be legally persecuted. I see that the Police have levelled "Indecent bahavior in Public" charge against the offenders (not "racism") - not sure if this will withstand serious legal scrutiny.

13

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

Saddi punjabi inni strong nai si....care to explain?

14

Re: Desi crowd behavior - Does a Cricket Board have any control ?

It was offensive, but not an offence: Lawyers
Swati Deshpande | TNN

**MUMBAI, October 18: **When the four spectators at the packed Wankhede made monkey actions after Andrew Symonds came to the crease, little did they think that it was a criminal offence. And legal experts are on their side.

“What the foursome did was offensive, but not an offence,” said criminal counsel Mahesh Jethmalani. The cricket fans, however, were detained under the Bombay Police Act for alleged indecent behaviour and let off half-an-hour later on bonds.

What they did was in bad taste, but does it amount to racism? Lawyers replied in the negative. “Racism does not exist in this country, so there can be no offence. Sure, under its racism code the ICC can penalise the host nation it feels its code is violated even by spectators, but it can’t directly take action against the spectators, only the host nation can,” said Jethmalani.

The action that the host nation can take for racial abuse is: eject the offending spectator from the stand, prosecute him/her or impose a life ban.

However, in Wednesday’s incident, the police ought not to have acted so promptly, said another criminal law expert Nitin Pradhan. “Our law books have covered only obscene and threatening gestures that relate to public peace and tranquility.”

Such boorish behaviour by a section of the crowd leaves a bad taste and does not go well with Indian culture, but that does not mean it is illegal or a racial offence," he said, adding, “the arrests seem to have been done to placate the Australians.”

Lawyers noted that many blacks land up in criminal courts in the city in drugs cases, but there have been no complaints of racist slurs against them. “We should be decent on and off the field to show our tradition,” said Pradhan."

Yet another senior counsel, Fredun DeVitre, who has been a cricket commentator, said the problem appears not so much a legal one as one of unacceptable behaviour. “It is not racial abuse. Regrettably, the Mumbai crowd over the last decade has acquired a reputation for unsporting behaviour.”