The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : CA satisfied with BCCI’s handling of racism issue

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Saturday, Oct 20, 2007
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CA satisfied with BCCI’s handling of racism issue

London: Pleased with the way Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) reacted to the issue of racial abuse of Andrew Symonds, Cricket Australia (CA) Chief Executive, James Sutherland, said there was no question of boycotting future tours of India.

“I don’t think it has got to that stage or even gets to that stage (of boycotting),” Sutherland was quoted as saying by The Sporting Life here.

“There is an ICC Anti-Racism Policy in place. The ICC and the BCCI, the host of these matches, will no doubt deal with these issues going forward. It is really pleasing to see overnight the announcements by the BCCI president to condemn racism in cricket,” he said.

“Whilst the incident in the last game in Mumbai was disappointing, it is pleasing to see the officials at the ground are taking the response to evict those people from the ground and take the appropriate action,” the official said.

BCCI has already entrusted its Chief Administrative Officer, Ratnakar Shetty, to look after crowd behaviour in Saturday’s Twenty20 match against Australia and police personnel would be deployed to prevent a repeat of the episode.

Advertising campaign

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia (CA) is bracing itself for a high voltage summer when India tours down under and has decided to launch an advertising campaign aimed directly at potentially troublesome spectators. The effort will be complemented by maintaining the enhanced security presence used during last year’s Ashes series, CA’s Anti-Racism Officer, Peter Young, said.

Boisterous behaviour is fine, Young said, including even shouting insults at players. “But if your idea of fun offends someone else, there will be nowhere for you to hide,” Young said.

CA will work closely with police, and closed-circuit TV monitoring will again be used to keep an eye out for trouble. At some venues, spectators will be invited to inform about unruly fans by text message. — Agencies

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