Cricket: Fleming echoes call for tighter ground security

By Richard Boock

MANCHESTER - New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming has added his voice to a plea for more security at international cricket venues after a potentially nasty crowd invasion during his team's World Cup semifinal loss to Pakistan yesterday.

The match at Old Trafford was held up for about 10 minutes after Kiwi fieldsman Roger Twose, while chasing a ball towards the boundary, found himself swamped by a hoard of Pakistan fans charging in the opposite direction.

A vastly outnumbered security force, headed by what looked like Mike Tyson's old bodyguard squad, were fully stretched to restore even a semblance of order, with one invader able to snatch a souvenir bail before being caught on his return journey. Skyrockets and other fireworks, klaxons and whistles, flares and air-horns - these were the popular accessories of choice for the overwhelmingly Pakistani-dominated, 21,000-strong crowd, many of whom worked themselves up to fever-pitch midway through the afternoon session.

Speaking after the game, Fleming initially promoted the idea of perimeter fences but demurred after being reminded of the Hillsborough crowd disaster, and said the issue needed to be studied carefully to find a solution.

"It's a real concern," he said after Pakistan had knocked New Zealand out the World Cup by an emphatic nine-wicket margin.

"Something needs to be done quickly or someone will get badly hurt. Maybe we just need sheer numbers in security staff, perhaps we need stiff fines like they have in Australia. I'm not sure what the answer is, but we need to find one.

"It's not just that this is interfering with everybody's safety - it's interfering with the game as well, and we can do without that."

Australian captain Steve Waugh and his Indian counterpart, Mohammad Azharuddin, have already demanded more protection from venue administrators after violent incidents at this tournament, all of them involving assaults on players as they left the ground.

Waugh, who was nearly floored by a flying rum bottle earlier this year in the Caribbean, said he constantly feared a Monica Seles-type of attack, in reference to the stabbing of the tennis star by a demented fan in Germany six years ago.

However, Pakistan captain Wasim Akram dismissed yesterday's crowd invasion as "overexcitement on the part of a few fans," and said he was not unduly concerned by the hold-up.

"Maybe the security has to be more strict, I don't know. I wasn't really worried about it, some people just go a bit over the top."