Bottle field: Fans protest Campbell runout (26 April 1999)

26 April 1999

Bottle field: Fans protest Campbell runout

Gayle Alleyne

ANGERED cricket fans threw Kensington Oval into disarray yesterday by hurling hundreds of bottles onto the field and halting play for 45 minutes.

This followed a mid-pitch collision between Barbadian batting hero Sherwin Campbell and Australian bowler, Brendon Julian, in the final game of a tense and enthralling One-Day series.

Campbell fell and never made it to his end of the wicket. While still on the ground, he appealed to umpire Eddie Nicholls who gave him "run out".

As Campbell made his way to the pavilion, rebellion erupted. Bottles began to fly on to the grounds, firstly one by one; then by the tens. Then there were two concrete blocks, chicken bones, two plastic chairs - almost anything patrons laid their hands on.

The entire perimeter of Kensington was littered with missiles. The players made their way to the dressing room and more missiles trailed them. Australian captain Steve Waugh narrowly missed being struck by a bottle as he was about to enter the pavilion, escorted by police.

Close to 100 policemen and policewomen and the Task Force took over the grounds, watching the crowds and protecting the wicket while officials conferred and fans debated.

The crowd rebellion took place in the 29th over when the West Indies were 138 for one, chasing a target of 253 to tie the series 3-3.

Yesterday's incident was a throwback to a similar event in 1979 when Roy Fredericks was controversially given out lbw and bottles rained at Kensington for the first time. Part of a stand was broken down at that time. The match was abandoned.

"For too long they think Bajans quiet. It done now," declared one young woman in the Mitchie Hewitt Stand yesterday.

"No Campbell, no cricket!" shouted a man, banging on the Eric Inniss Stand's galvanised railing.

Another fellow said that once Campbell "come back we gine clean up the field" but if not "it gine be more bottles".

As the public address announcer appealed for fans to desist from that unseemly behaviour, a box of garbage crashed onto the field from the top tier of the Mitchie Hewitt Stand.

Tony Marshall, president of the Barbados Cricket Association walked across the field and summoned National Hero Sir Garfield Sobers from the Media Centre to the Players' Pavilion. Together, they walked back across the field and that gave angry fans some hope of a resumption of play.

Officials spent about 30 minutes in conference with the umpires and match referee, Raman Subba Row, then with the Australian manager and captain.

The noisy Kensington Stand crowd continued to express dissent, chanting: "We want Campbell!" and "Campbell, come back!" and patriotically singing the National Anthem.

They got their wish. Immediate applause engulfed the Oval.

It was Sir Garry's voice which announced the Australian team had agreed to allow Campbell to resume his innings. By then, the field had been cleared of all the missiles and play restarted at 4:30 p.m. with the West Indies target reduced to 196 and 11 overs left.

Indeed, Campbell, who had 52 runs when initially given out, found himself at the centre of all that was bad and good yesterday.

He eventually fell for 62, paving the path for a West Indian victory. That effort earned him the Man-of-the-Match and sealed adjudicators' decision that he was also Man-of-the-Series for the One-Day competition for his 312 runs (44.57 average).

The 28-year-old Barbadian, who solidly revitalised his limited-overs career, received the keys to a gleaming burgundy Rover 200 series as his prize.

However, the tour-ending One-Day match will be remembered for the contentious runout decision and the ensuing fracas which erupted around 3:45 p.m.

Everyone did not support the method of protest and a few cricket lovers left; one woman stating she would prefer not to watch the game than to see people behave like that. Others noted that while displeased with the run-out, they could not condone bottle-throwing.

Afterwards, West Indies manager Clive Lloyd urged officials to use modern technology to determine such umpiring decisions.

"I think if you have a decision like that the referee and the umpires should use the technology to decipher what transpired," said Lloyd who thought the run-out "looked funny".

Waugh termed his team's decision "pretty fair" considering they would have won the series if the game was called off.

"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," he said in a post-match interview.

The Australian captain said "it was left to us" and he thought he did the correct thing. However, his tour has been soured by the incident.

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

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