Cricket under siege
Editorial
When West Indians thought it was impossible that Wednesday's shameful display at Bourda could be eclipsed, their Kensington Oval counterparts proved them wrong yesterday. The bottle-pelting performance by spectators at the Barbadian ground angry at the dismissal of their local boy Sherwin Campbell was truly disgraceful and puts cricket in this part of the world under siege. However, the events at Kensington can in no way mitigate the jeopardy posed to cricket here by the Bourda debacle. No single event this year has attracted such concerted outrage as Wednesday's insane invasion of the hallowed precincts of the Bourda pitch by a motley mix of hooligans, curiosity seekers, blithering idiots and thieves. The deserved condemnation has been swift as it has been brutal and has resonated through all sections of society. The criticism must now give way to a real effort to limit the damage to Guyana's standing in the international cricket community and this requires a campaign which the government must marshal. While match referee Raman Subba Row overreacted by suggesting that a ban be placed on international cricket here there should be no misreading of the situation. The future of international cricket here is now precariously perched at the summit of a very slippery slope. There can be little confidence in any probe being conducted by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) particularly since these same two bodies presided over an almost identical manifestation six years ago and apparently learnt little from the event. Moreover, the matter is now bigger than the GCB and the GCC. Wednesday's invasion of Bourda by the rabble has become a national dishonour which demands a national response. As blameless as it is in this matter, the government will now have to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that lasting damage is not done considering that in a few years the one-day World Cup is to be played in the West Indies and Guyana will be seeking its fair share of games. While the GCB will be required to present the obligatory report to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for forwarding to the International Cricket Council (ICC) the government through its Ministries of Sport and Home Affairs must get on the case. First, the government should establish a one-person enquiry into the disaster on Wednesday. This person should have no established links with either the GCB or the GCC and should be given the mandate to seek testimony from all of those involved including the police. That person should also be required to submit a report in a few weeks with specific recommendations on culpability and action to prevent a recurrence. Once this has been done, the government should then act on the report and move to assure the WICB and the ICC that corrective measures will be put in place and that the GCB will be given the resources and the enforcement capacity to do its job. A high-level government official or representative should be entrusted with the task of lobbying the WICB and the ICC. The situation requires this scale of effort and we commend it to the government. The Guyanese public will be keenly interested in answers to many of the brain-teasers thrown up by the Wednesday fiasco. How did hundreds and perhaps thousands of persons illegally enter the ground and why was there no discernible effort to eject them? Why were scores of people able to mount the roof of one of the stands and endanger hundreds of lives without a robust effort by the police to move them? Were bogus tickets in circulation on the day of the match? Why did the police seem to have no contingency plan considering the eruption onto the ground in the penultimate over? Whatever emerges from this mire must be forward looking. The seating capacity of Bourda is insufficient and there must be consideration of further expansion. Basic facilities at Bourda including the scoreboard are woefully below international standards and those befitting an arena of this stature. The layout of the facility with respect to ingress and egress, locale of concessionnaires and multi-sport use must be reflected on. The containment of overexcited fans and hooligans like those of Wednesday's fame must be provided for. Retaining barriers have seen catastrophic fatal consequences on soccer grounds and other places as a result of stampedes and careful thought is needed here. Finally, the security of players and fans must be paramount. After suffering a whiplash injury in the eery invasion of the ground, Australian captain, Steve Waugh invoked the memory of the knifing attack in Hamburg on tennis star Monica Seles and pointed out that it only takes one unhinged person to cause that kind of injury. Wednesday's event provided perfect cover. Our own Tony Cozier twice in this one-day series, once in Jamaica and at Bourda warned that it was only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt in these unwelcome tangles between spectators and players. The authorities here must take this seriously. The display on Wednesday by the rag-tag band is a symbol of the moral and mental looseness that has gripped the country sporadically. When it seeps into events like sports and beauty pageants it demonstrates the enormity of the task of building a civilised society. Those who were on the field on Wednesday must ask themselves searching questions on whether they want to be part of that society. 
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