If fans break the rules they should be punished

Chris Cairns

June 19, 2001

The scenes I witnessed the during the England-Pakistan One-Day International at Headingley were disgraceful.

To see a man carried off on a stretcher, and may I take this opportunity to wish Stephen Speight all the best in his recovery, was quite surreal considering that the game I was watching was being played in the land that invented the game.

Herein lies part of the problem.

England, with its tradition and gentlemanly ways, has not kept up with what other countries have been doing for quite some time - crowd control.

What blows me away is that these exact messages from players about how dangerous crowds coming on to the field were, was spelt out to the ECB during the World Cup two years ago.

It seems lessons have not been learnt and we now have a man lying in hospital because of inadequate deterrents.

The penalties need to be harsh, and we need to face the fact that these are the times we live in.

People shouldn't be saying these things shouldn't happen.

Of course they shouldn't. But what needs to be in place is something to stop it, and that should have been done two years ago.

Some bloke named John Read from the ECB issued a statement today saying we shouldn't jump to any hasty conclusions about what happened and that there were some positive initiatives happening.

Get real mate, and get off the PC wagon.

People need to know that if they transgress they are going to be punished.

It's time for action.

A few people are spoiling the game for the rest of us and they need to be sorted out. There are plenty of well-documented examples the ECB can follow and I just hope commonsense prevails.

With that taking the spotlight I feel sorry for Waqar Younis who produced such an outstanding bowling display for his seven wickets.

One of the great fast bowlers the game has seen will not get the true accolades he deserves from the game.

Back on the New Zealand front, it's not long until the announcement of the new CLEAR Black Caps coach.

I have not heard any whispers of who, and it has been a closely-guarded secret by New Zealand Cricket.

With both the coach (David Trist) and the CEO (Christopher Doig) having left NZC (actually David leaves in July), one man we will be relying on a lot is the manager Jeff Crowe.

Jeff is someone the public doesn't see or hear a lot from but the job he does within the Black Caps is outstanding. He is someone who keeps everyone in check and provides all kinds of support in many different areas and is a man who I have the utmost respect for.

With Jeff there helping the new coach, the transition will be very smooth I'm sure.

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Players/Umpires

Chris Cairns

Teams

New Zealand

Oxford UCCE