Cricket: Melbourne Stars banking on Warne support

Shane Warne. Photo / Getty Images

The Melbourne Stars Twenty 20 team want fans at the MCG to show Shane Warne the kind of wholehearted support that Bay 13 was famous for back in the days of Merv Hughes.

Fans in the old Bay 13 area of the MCG became notorious for throwing rubbish in the air during outbreaks of the Mexican Wave, causing discomfort and injury to other patrons.

In recent years it has been stadium security officials who have become notorious as "fun police'' for confiscating blow-up balls and generally taking some of the spontaneity out of the MCG crowds.

However the Stars have launched a Warnie's Bay promotion, with 500 tickets available for their home games in the Big Bash League Twenty20 season, starting next month.

Cricket Australia marketing general manager Mike McKenna says any outbreaks of the Mexican Wave will be closely monitored.

However McKenna admitted on Monday it was unfortunate that in recent years authorities had reacted to the minority of misbehaving fans, which has had a significant impact on the majority.

"The Stars are onto something there. Having a supporter bay where you have your most fanatical fans is always going to be very exciting,'' McKenna said.

"I think it will help pump the teams up.

"There's no change to the terms and conditions of entry to cricket this year.

"We certainly want to make sure that we look at it and ascertain what's going in the crowd.

"In the past when people have done the wave ... when they started throwing things we saw a large number of injuries.

"You had to be in the first-aid rooms under the ground here at the MCG to see the damage that was being done to people by the objects that were being hurled into the air without any consideration for others's safety.

"That's the sort of thing we're concerned about.''

- AAP