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MCG crowds warned for ODIs

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December 11, 2002 12:59 IST

The future of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) as a venue for limited-overs internationals could be in doubt if crowd behaviour does not improve, Australia's cricket chief said on Wednesday.

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive James Sutherland said a repetition of incidents earlier this year, which included patrons throwing objects on to the field and halting play, could force the International Cricket Council (ICC) to seek an alternative venue.

"It's pretty clear from the International Cricket Council's point of view that the MCG is in the worst three grounds in the world for crowd behaviour based on the record in the last few years," Sutherland told reporters.

"There is no doubt that the ICC have taken a much stronger view of poor crowd behaviour and they will shortly be introducing the powers to ban grounds where they don't meet the standards or they have a record that has been inferior to the required standards in the past."

Sutherland said the ICC's list of troublesome grounds also included two in India, where last month's India-West Indies limited overs series was marred by missile-throwing.

The triangular limited-overs

series between Australia, England and Sri Lanka starts when the home team play England in Sydney on Friday and in Melbourne on Sunday.

More than 200 people were ejected from the MCG during a match between Australia and New Zealand on January 11 this year.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming called his players into the middle of the field as objects were thrown onto the ground and play was interrupted for 10 minutes.

More trouble erupted in the crowd of more than 62,000 during the match between Australia and South Africa at the ground two days later.

But Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne supported his home-town crowd on Wednesday.

"I don't think the Victorian crowds are the worst in the world, definitely not," Warne told reporters in Sydney. "The Victorian crowd and the MCG crowd are absolutely sensational. I think they get right behind Australia.

"I think there's one or two people all over the world, let alone in Melbourne, who take it over the top but as far as we're concerned we just want to worry about playing cricket on the field and hopefully the spectators come to watch some entertaining cricket."

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