BBC SPORT | Cricket | Gavaskar seeks venues ban

Sunil Gavaskar wants Indian grounds with crowd problems to be banned from staging international cricket.

The former Indian Test batsman was speaking after a match in Jamshedpur on Wednesday was stopped for 10 minutes.

The crowd, fearing an Indian defeat, threw bottles onto the field and lit fires in the stands. Match referee Mike Procter initially abandoned play and awarded the game to the West Indies.

The Indian board must seriously start thinking of banning venues where there is crowd disturbance

Sunil Gavaskar

But rival players persuaded him to allow the final three overs to be completed.

The West Indies went on to win by four wickets as Ramnaresh Sarwan hit a last-ball boundary off Ajit Agarkar to help his team surpass India's challenging 283-6.

"Crowds that cannot accept an Indian defeat should get no cricket whatsoever," said Gavaskar, who heads the world governing body's cricket committee.

"The Indian board must seriously start thinking of banning venues where there is crowd disturbance."

He also called for them to consider fining the staging association for not ensuring proper conduct of the match.

Ironically, the Bihar Cricket Asociation, which hosted Wednesday's match, is headed by a former police chief of the state, Amitabh Chowdhury.

Mike Procter was said to be furious

Procter will report the match to the International Cricket Council (ICC) which is committed to safeguarding the safety of the players.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, India's cricket board president, said: "The ICC, the national Boards and the players are working together to ensure that every country has in place effective safety and security plans at all venues."

"Crowd disturbances on cricket grounds are against the spirit of the game."

He suggested "disturbance-prone" venues may struggle to retain international status.

Only two venues in India, Mohali in the north and Madras in the south have untarnished records.

Calcutta's Eden Gardens has twice in the last eight years encountered serious trouble.

In the current series, there are six more internationals to be played across the country.

Three of them will be held in the sensitive western state of Gujarat where hundreds were killed in communal violence earlier this year.


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