WACA wants bigger fines for ground invaders

The WACA has apologised to Khalid Latif and called on the Western Australian government to increase the fines for pitch invaders to $10,000 after Latif was tackled to the ground during Sunday's ODI. The man who grabbed Latif has been charged with assault and banned from the venue for life but faces a maximum penalty of only $500 due to the state laws on ground invasions.

"I thought we put on two very good events here but that leaves a sour taste in the mouth," Graeme Wood, the WACA chief executive, said. "What we want to see as sports is harsher penalties. We are the softest in Australia.

"In the other states where there are very stiff penalties we have noticed a lot less incidents. The fine at magistrates can only be $500, whereas in other states in can be up to $7000. We want to be a lot harder and we will be sitting down with the government to get some legislation in place in time for the Ashes series."

Wood conceded that the ground's security staff had dropped their guard in allowing the man to run about 50 metres to Latif without being intercepted. There is generally a large security presence at the WACA, and at training players are escorted to and from the nets by guards but during the match things did not go to plan.

"To see someone tackle a player is very disappointing," Wood said. "Someone [security] has taken his eye off the ball, and someone got a break. It is not a great reflection on the WACA, on Perth and on WA as a destination, because it is going to be beamed all around the world. We have apologised to the Pakistan team and the player in question."