'Blow to 2007': Rousseau fears for World Cup bid (29 April 1999)

29 April 1999

'Blow to 2007': Rousseau fears for World Cup bid

The Barbados Nation

Kingston - West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Pat Rousseau says recent crowd disturbances at two regional grounds may have seriously compromised the region's bid to host cricket's World Cup in 2007.

Rousseau told a TVJ interviewer on Monday night that crowd invasions at Bourda last week and the throwing of bottles and other missiles by spectators at the Kensington Oval on Sunday endangered "all the work" put in by the WICB to get the 2007 World Cup.

The WICB president predicted that he would now have "a major problem" at the level of the International Cricket Conference (ICC) in trying to persuade other cricketing nations that the Caribbean was ready to host such a tournament.

The incidents, he said, had shown the need for modern all-seated facilities, including proper aisles and turnstiles, strict monitoring to avoid overcrowding and the strict enforcement of safety rules that should include the barring of bottles.

Suggesting that police support was inadequate, he claimed that police often turned up at the games in numbers but "spend 90 per cent of the time watching the cricket".

Pledging to press ahead with efforts to increase safety at regional grounds, Rousseau said that, like Australian captain Steve Waugh, he was haunted by "visions of somebody sticking a knife" into a player.

While stressing that poor crowd behaviour was not restricted to the Caribbean, Rousseau suggested one way to ensure more responsible behaviour from home crowds.

He said the match conditions could stipulate that if "host supporters invade the field" or in other ways seriously disrupt the game, "the match automatically goes to the visitors".

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