British ministers to meet ECB officials

Shyam Bhatia
India Abroad correspondent in London

British ministers are to meet officials of the England and Wales Cricket Board to discuss ways of preventing recurrences of recent crowd disorder, including the England-Pakistan match at Headingley where a steward was injured.

Junior minister Lord Bassam, who as a Home Office minister before the election chaired a working group on football disorder, said he did not anticipate any changes in the law.

But he backed as "eminently sensible" a suggestion from Conservative frontbencher Lord Cope of Berkeley that fixed-penalty fines for throwing fireworks in a public highway could be extended to other public places, such as cricket grounds.

Bassam told fellow members of the Lords last Tuesday that the sports minister and the Home Office minister "with responsibility in this area" would meet the cricket board to discuss "a range of crowd management issues".

He added "The Government will assist the cricketing authorities in identifying what needs to be done to minimise the potential for further crowd problems."

Labour's Lord Faulkner, a former vice-chairman of the Football Task Force, also called on the Government to introduce new crowd control measures.

He cited the example of the Football Offences Act 1991, which had largely eliminated the throwing of missiles and fireworks and pitch invasions, saying, "There is now considerable support for the extension of that legislation to cricket.:

Bassam responded, "I think the important thing for the authorities, particularly the cricket authorities working with Government, is to consider what other measures of crowd management can be undertaken without the necessary recourse to legislation.

"Clearly other issues, such as ticketing, safety policy, the rehearsing of contingency plans, improved training of stewards, looking at entry controls, post-match celebration arrangement controls and so on, are issues and matters which need to be dealt with.

"Whether legislation would be helpful in that regard, I doubt.

"Any serious crowd disturbance and public disorder is clearly of national importance and concern."