India's Crowd Worries: A Recurring Problem

Anyone who follows the game of cricket with passion such as the Indian cricket fans, must be aware that India has always had its hands full when it comes to crowd troubles. Previously, crowd troubles in various Indian grounds have been restricted to hurling lethal objects (such as the bullet that was shot in Flintoff's direction in Dehli).

Today however, at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati, the crowd behavior was simply put, despicable. Mobs rioted, breached the fence that divides the stadium seating from the playing area, destroyed cameras and hurled numerous types of missles in to the ground. Moreover, the cameras that were situated around the boundary lines were vandalized and obliterated.

According to cricinfo, the cost of the destruction is estimated to be worth between Rs. 6.5 - 8 million. In the past, Calcutta has been the a hot spot for being a troublesome venue, but places such as Rajkot, Jamshedpur, Nagpur and Dehli have seen their share of misbehavior from the crowd too. None of these places have seen the kind of behavior that was witnessed at the Nehru Stadium.

The Calcutta crowd had shown their disappointment in the form of hurling bottles and cans in to the ground, when the Indian batting line-up slumped in the fact of a magnificent bowling performance by the Sri Lankans during the 1996 world cup. The people of Calcutta took to the streets carrying banners of apology, showing regret for their actions. However, a few years later, in 1999 to be precise, the Calcutta crowd repeated its misbehavior; this time in response to the run out of Sachin Tendulkar when he was adjudicated out after colliding with Shoaib Akhtar while scampering for a quick run. The crowd created an uproar, setting ablaze to wooden planks, hurled chairs and bottles in to the ground.

It is high time that the ICC takes note of such unruly behavior and toughens up their laws on ground safety for international cricket. Furthermore, the BCCI should be penalized for not doing enough to prevent such outright disrespect for the sport and the players.

All around the world, no other nation has witnessed as much crowd trouble as India has and it is time for them to straighten their act and take some action, or face disciplinary action from the ICC. The BCCI is aware of the fact that Indian fans have perpetually and consistently caused disruption during matches in the past, and they will continue to do so until they receive some sort of a punishment. Calcultta narrowly escaped punishment after their despicable show of discontent in the 1999 Test match mostly because the president of the ICC at the time Jagmoham Dalmiya.

The punishment could come either in the form of deprivation in terms of home cricket, or in terms of penalizing BCCI financially. If the rules on chucking can stir so much controversy, the safety of the players must be even higher up on the list of priorities, and hence should receive even more attention. The ICC would prefer to see the issue being swept away under the rug due to political pressure from the BCCI.

The BCCI has a strong say in ICC matters and this repulsive behavior by an Indian crowd may very well be overlooked by the cricket's governing body. This strength of BCCI's political card was quite evident from the battle that erupted between the ICC and the BCCI after the latter had threatened to pull out of the Sahara Champtions Trophy. In my personal opinion, the ICC needs to take charge and tell BCCI should to clean up its act, or pay the price.