Keep cricket crowds beyond the boundary
Editorial
AFTER the humiliation of South Africa, the events of the Australian tour of the Caribbean came as a refreshing lift for the West Indian cricketing public-until last Wednesday. And though there are those who will contend that the untimely intervention by the Guyanese crowd has helped to maintain interest in the series at the highest possible level, it is a view that that only the cynical can espouse. For lovers of sport, to whom cynicism is by definition anathema, there is no compromise possible on a basic principle: whoever the contenders, whatever the sport, whatever the stakes, the issue must be decided on the field of play. And for sporting administrators in general-and the West Indies Cricket Board-for whom that principle must always be sacrosanct, it must be deeply galling when the outcome of a game has to be determined by adjudication or negotiation. So for the WICB, its reputation already sullied by a series of mishaps over the last two years, the disruption to Wednesday's match was particularly inopportune. What is worse is that, as has been the case virtually throughout this series, the Fifth One-day International was so delicately poised that the outcome remained in doubt right until the end of the penultimate over. The Australians, after looking completely out of the running at one stage, came back to find themselves needing just 17 runs off the last 12 balls-eminently feasible. And when they got 11 of those before the first of the last six balls was delivered, it was virtually done. And that was the juncture at which the crowd made its first-and arguably most decisive-move. Now without making excuses for the behaviour of the Guyanese crowd, it is normal for emotions to run high at One-day matches. That almost goes with the wham-bam-thank-you-man nature of the limited-overs game. So it is not really surprising that there should occasionally be attempts by the spectators to encroach on the field of play. What is surprising-and indefensible-is that those attempts should succeed. And be successful to the point where the Australian captain could reasonably claim to have been afraid for his life! Let us not forget that during the Test series both in Barbados and in Jamaica, there were also incursions on to the field by spectators at moments of high emotion. So the WICB have done the right thing by putting the Barbados authorities on notice about the need for near water-tight security for this weekend's doubleheader at Kensington Oval. But what must be clear is that it is not a matter of plugging a hole in the dyke. The board must think in terms of erecting a whole sea-wall around every one of the international grounds if cricket in the region is not to be washed away on a swelling tide of indiscipline.
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