Match Referee Andy Pycroft Demands Assurance Of High Security After “Bottling” Incident
Aug 28, 2017 at 6:48 PM
The Story
A prolonged struggle to win matches by the Sri Lankan cricket team has now made the fans very annoyed. The effects of their frustration have been witnessed not once but on many occasions during the ongoing ODI series so far.
Things escalated to an unexpected level after angry spectators caused an unpleasant interruption during the final moments of the third ODI last night at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. After realizing that the home side was about to lose yet another game and give away the series honors to India, the dejected fans began hurling bottles in the playing area. Therefore, causing an interruption for nearly 35 minutes.
India eventually won the match by 6 wickets.
The Aftermath:
The unforeseen incident has prompted ICC Match Referee Andy Pycroft to demand extra security for the upcoming games of the series. Pycroft had asked for assurance that there will no more crowd trouble and players’ safety will not come under any threat.
This was the first incident in Sri Lanka where the crowd had become unruly.
“We have lined up a few meetings. There are few internal meetings and then we will meet the security officials to discuss what needs to be done,” an SLC official told Cricbuzz.
“There are security plans that we have and we will share it with security officials. We will also take measure to educate the public and we are hopeful that things will not get out of hand in Colombo.”
Police in informal clothing to be deployed
The third ODI had a sell-out crowd of 21,000 people attending the game. Just when India need eight runs to win, bottles were thrown inside the playing area by the fans to express their unhappiness. The umpires had no option but to halt the game and try to bring the situation under control.
Riot police were deployed later on and fans from a section of the venue were completely evicted to ensure that the game was resumed.
SLC said there will be policemen in informal clothing deployed in Colombo to identify trouble makers along with other security measures. There are two more games left in the ODI series apart from one T20 game
The last two ODIs and the one off Twenty20 International will all be played at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.