Waugh: Safety again at risk (26 April 1999)

26 April 1999

Waugh: Safety again at risk

The Barbados Nation

AUSTRALIAN captain Steve Waugh has claimed local cricket officials told him they could not guarantee his team's safety if play did not resume in yesterday's One-day.

"They said it would be a much worse situation if we didn't go out and play," he said.

"We were risking our lives again for a game of One-Day cricket. If it keeps on going like that, there's no point in us playing."

Waugh described Sherwin Campbell's run-out as a "heat of the moment" situation.

"Everything happened in a flash," he said. "All of a sudden, guys are running into each other and the bails are taken off. That's why I asked Brendon (Julian), the wicket-keeper (Adam Gilchrist) and a couple of the other guys how they saw it."

He said there was no cause for the crowd to hurl bottles onto the field.

"You can't behave like that in a game of cricket."

Waugh said if there was one more match scheduled in the series "there was no guarantee we would have been playing".

TV images showed a flying bottle missing Waugh by inches as he led his team off the field.

"It was similar with a few other guys and it was pure luck that bottles didn't hit someone in the head," Waugh said.

"It was pretty fair on our behalf to go out there and resume play. If we didn't go out and play we would have won the series 3-2, we would take the series, the money and take the car," Waugh said.

"The game could have easily been abandoned here as was the one in Guyana.

"I thought Barbados was going to be a safe place. I always enjoyed playing cricket here; it's been fantastic, but the reputation has been tarnished."

Waugh added that if two situations could develop so close to each other when crowds could take matters into their own hands then security has to be examined.

"Obviously something is wrong with security and that has to be looked at. If you've got a danger, you have to look at that and it has happened a few times in Guyana."

After remaining in Barbados for a short vacation, the Australian players are scheduled to fly to England on Sunday for the seventh World Cup tourney.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)