From ball thrown at Siraj to beer can flung at Bevan, incidents of unruly behaviour from cricket fans
From ball thrown at Siraj to beer can flung at Bevan, incidents of unruly behaviour from cricket fans
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A ball was thrown from the stands at India pacer Mohammed Siraj, teammate Rishabh Pant revealed after Day 1 of the third Test against England on Wednesday.
"I think, somebody (from the crowd) threw a ball at Siraj, so he (Kohli) was upset. You can say whatever you want, chant, but don't throw things at fielders. It is not good for cricket, I guess,” the wicket-keeper batsman explained.
This, however, is not a one-off incident. While there might be emotions attached to the game, there are times when fans in the stands have crossed the line, much to the displeasure of the competing teams and the spirit of cricket.
Here, we take a look at some of the incidents where players were at the receiving end of some unruly behaviour from the crowd:
Bottle cork thrown at KL Rahul (India tour of England, 2nd Test, 2021)
In the previous Test at Lord’s itself, where India staged a fantastic comeback to beat England by 151 runs, a bottle cork was reportedly thrown at first-innings centurion KL Rahul by the spectators from the stand, on Day 3.
An object that seemed like a champagne bottle cork was seen in the hands of Rahul. Skipper Virat Kohli was visibly upset at the field and reportedly asked Rahul to throw it back into the stands.
Players had an interaction with umpires Michael Gough and Richard Illingworth while play was briefly halted.
Siraj, Bumrah subjected to racist abuse (India tour of Australia, 2021)
The Indian team had lodged an official complaint with the ICC after two of its players — Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah — were racially abused on Day 3 and Day 4 of the drawn third Test against hosts Australia. "BCCI lodged a formal complaint with ICC match referee David Boon about two of their players Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj being abused by a drunk spectator," a cricket board source told PTI.
Play was halted for over 10 minutes on Day 4 and it resumed only after police evicted six people from the ground. Cricket Australia issued an unreserved apology to the touring team. Later, the ICC too condemned the incident.
The likes of India captain Virat Kohli, his Australian counterpart Tim Paine, hosts' coach Justin Langer and several former cricketers also condemned the incident.
"Racial abuse is absolutely unacceptable. Having gone through many incidents of really pathetic things said on the boundary lines, this is the absolute peak of rowdy behaviour. It’s sad to see this happen on the field,” Kohli tweeted.
Virat Kohli shows middle finger to a section of the crowd at SCG (India vs Australia 2nd Test, 2012)
The infamous incident involving Kohli occurred in 2012, when the cricketer, annoyed by the crowd taunts, showed his middle finger to a section of the crowd. That image, thereafter, sparked a lot of controversy.
Kohli took to Twitter as well, mentioning that the crowd started abusing his mother and sister.
“I agree cricketers don’t have to retaliate. What when the crowd says the worst things about your mother and sister. The worst I’ve heard,” he tweeted.
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen replied to Kohli’s tweet, saying "ha ha ha ha ha!!! Welcome to Australia buddy!!"
The Indian once again responded to Pietersen, saying “never heard crap like that. Ever.”
Match referee Ranjan Madugalle found Kohli guilty of a level two offence of the International Cricket Council's code of conduct. Besides, the Indian was also charged 50 percent of his match fee for his gesture on Day 2.
Inzamam ul Haq enters stands with a bat in hand after being called aloo (potato), India vs Pakistan (Sahara Cup 1997)
On 14th September, 1997, India and Pakistan took on each other in the second match of the Sahara Cup in Toronto. The match, however, became infamous for Inzamam ul Haq’s aggression as he was reportedly called a potato by an Indian fan in the crowd.
According to Dawn, one supporter had taunted the former Pakistan captain by saying, “O mote, sidha khara ho [Hey fatso, stand straight], mota aloo, sara aloo [fat potato, rotten potato].”
Responding to this, Inzamam, who was fielding near the boundary cushions, ran towards the fan with a bat in his hand, although match officials later interfered to stop the cricketer as well as take up the matter with the fan.
Much later, Waqar Younis came up with another angle to the incident, saying that someone in the crowd uttered inappropriate comments about Mohammad Azharuddin’s wife which made Inzamam angry.
Fan throws beer can at Australia batsman Michael Bevan’s face (Australia vs Pakistan, Natwest series final in 2001)
On 23 June, 2001, Australia thrashed Pakistan by nine wickets in the Netwest series final at Lord’s. In yet another shocking incident, however, a fan from the crowd threw a can full of beer at Bevan’s face. Ricky Ponting, who was standing next to Bevan, was visibly furious. Captain Steve Waugh took his team off the presentation platform.
In a post-match interview, Bevan said, “It’s very sad, but maybe, in a way, you can turn it into a positive. Maybe we’ve reached the lowest point with the spectators, and something will be done and it will be recognised that there are problems, and precautions have got to be taken.”
