Speed: Australia s cricketers need extra security

Australian Cricket Board chief executive Malcolm Speed has written an urgent letter to his English counterpart demanding extra security to protect Steve Waugh's team on the Ashes tour.

As English cricket recovers from its most frightening pitch invasion, Waugh today revealed the ACB initially expressed concern about player safety before the Australians arrived in London almost two weeks ago.

It is also understood that Speed fired off written correspondence to England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) boss Tim Lamb the morning after the Edgbaston debacle, making a non-negotiable request for beefed up security at all venues.

A reply was yet to be received.

The England-Pakistan limited overs match at Edgbaston on Thursday was delayed, almost abandoned, when an out-of-control crowd swamped the pitch before stumps, giving players genuine cause for panic as they fled to the pavilion.

Waugh, speaking on the eve of Australia's one-dayer against Pakistan at Cardiff, said the ACB told the ECB last month that players were worried about fans, many of them drunk, having such ridiculously easy access to them.

The reply?

"The answer we got was that it was in the culture of English cricket to have people run on the grounds and it was our responsibility to get off the ground quickly before anything happens," said the Australian captain.

"It seems a strange resolution to the problem, for us to get off the ground quickly before they come on.

"It doesn't make any sense, but what can you do?

"They don't seem to want to recognise the problem."

The problem in England is not restricted to over-zealous Pakistani fans.

An Australian player had his one-day cap taken off his head on Thursday when spectators at the County Ground at Northamptonshire sprinted on-field as soon as the last wicket fell.

"It's just unacceptable in professional sport," said Waugh, whose baggy green Test cap would be an obvious and invaluable target.

"There are huge revenues - cricket is a business yet they're not treating it as such.

"Why do people have to run on the ground and touch players and have access?

"Yesterday again there were guys drinking form the start of the match until the end, which is seven hours drinking.

"If they don't like someone, they've got a free reign to do whatever they want."

Waugh has experienced pitch invasions "about 10 or 20" times in his career, and two years ago he said he feared a Monica Seles-style stabbing would occur on the cricket field.

A bottle thrown from the top tier of a grandstand in Barbados in 1999 missed his head by inches, less than a week after he was jostled - someone attempted to steal his bat - in a farcical conclusion to a one-dayer in Guyana.

A certain run out on the final ball was impossible because the stumps were uprooted as Waugh attempted to make his crease, bumping shoulders with locals on the way.

"It's only a matter of time before a serious injury occurs on the field," he said.

"Ask all the players, they believe it's going to happen - its just a matter of who's going to be unlucky."

Meanwhile, Australia and England meet for the first time this Ashes summer in a one-dayer at Bristol tomorrow, but Waugh refused point-blank to talk about the match in terms of being a preliminary for the five-Test series.

"There are guys like Michael Bevan, Ian Harvey, Andrew Symonds, guys who only play one-day cricket so if we don't show the one-day game respect, we're not showing those guys respect," he said.