Spectators in the MCG’s famous Bay 13 have been warned to cease racially motivated taunting of Indian players and spectators after multiple complaints over the first two days of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Chants of “show us your visa” were a regular feature of the first two days, leading to a formal warning from Cricket Australia to spectators in the public area in the bottom tier of the MCG’s Great Southern Stand that if the chanting did not stop then the entire bay would be ejected from the ground.
Footage of the chant, obtained by ESPNcricinfo, was passed on to CA, who in turn passed the video on to Victoria Police and stadium management. “Victoria Police and stadium security are monitoring the behaviour of the crowd in that section of the stadium,” a CA spokesperson said, “and have had several discussions with those fans in that bay to remind them about appropriate crowd behaviour, as per venue entry terms and conditions.”
Other chants from the bay, such as “Kohli’s a wanker”, were the cause for some complaints from other spectators but not deemed worthy of a warning. Similar chants about opposition players have been part of the MCG atmosphere for some years, famously including New Zealand’s Sir Richard Hadlee among others.
Crowd members are encouraged to report “anti-social behaviour”, while CA’s ticket and entry conditions expressly prohibit any sort of racist taunting, stating in part: “I will not engage in any conduct (whether through the use of language, gestures or otherwise) which is likely to offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten, disparage or vilify any other person (including any player, match official, other official or other patron) on the basis of their gender, race, religion, culture, colour, sexual orientation, descent or national or ethnic origin.
“If I fail to comply with this condition, I may be refused admission to, or evicted from, the Venue by any Authorised Person without refund or compensation of any kind; and I must deliver up any and all Tickets that I have in my possession at the request of an Authorised Person. In addition, I acknowledge that the failure to comply with this condition may result in the imposition of other sanctions (such as being banned from the Venue in the future) and possible further action including criminal prosecution.”
Booing of various players has also been a feature of the match so far, including that of India captain Virat Kohli and also the Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh, who came into the side in place of Peter Handscomb. His teammate Travis Head stated his disappointment at the booing of Marsh on Boxing Day.
“I don’t think it’s great,” Head said. “Obviously we’ve seen it with Kohli as well but for Mitch, who worked his bum off today, I thought he bowled exceptionally well. I thought he created pressure in tough conditions and fought really hard. I don’t think any Australian cricketer in Australia deserves to be booed.
“I understand the Victorian crowd, Petey obviously missing out, but I think it’s pretty poor for Mitchy to cop that.”
Crowds at the MCG so far for the Test have been 73,516 on day one, 36,524 on day two and 33,447 on day three, for a total of 143,487.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo