Suneer Chowdhary
( Cricket Writer)
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The Wankhede stadium in Mumbai has known to be in the spotlight for some time now. Often, it is not for the right reasons. Usually, the visiting captains – and I am referring to the international matches that get played here – refrain from exhibiting any sorts of emotions and gestures, because they are weary of a hostile reaction from the crowds.

It was here, at Wankhede, that a couple of guys were evicted from the crowd because they made gestures – at Andrew Symonds – and their taunting assumed racist proportions. One would have thought that such behavior would have a deterrent effect on the audiences at this stadium, but that has not been the case. As a part of the audiences for matches in Mumbai, I have experienced that the same kind of hostility has continued to emanate from the stands. The only difference now has been that the international teams have been replaced by franchise based IPL sides.

Yuvraj Singh, the skipper of the Kings XI Punjab, should have been a happy man yesterday, when his side beat the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede by a slender margin of a solitary run. In turn, his team also cemented their place in the semi-finals. But Yuvraj Singh was totally miffed at the press conference. He was livid at the way his team players were heckled and ‘abused’ by the Wankhede crowd and this is what he had to say, “I don't think anyone should take the liberty to heckle Indian players even if they are from the visiting team. Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Chawla and I have played for India and have come to Mumbai before and they should not criticize us in this manner.”

This probably makes Yuvraj the first captain to give vent to his feelings about the way the crowd over here goes about carrying its business. Yuvraj has a point here. Rahul Dravid had earlier commented about the fact that he found it very surprising that he was greeted with a stunned silence at every boundary he scored.

In sports, partisanship is okay and part of the game, but there is that fine line, which when crossed turns a crowd into a mob. For some time now, the crowd has been bordering on this boundary, and amidst the emotions associated with watching the match in a cauldron like Wankhede, this can easily boil over to undesired proportions. And it is not even as if the Mohali crowd had been nasty towards the Mumbai Indians in their away matches.

This may be a domestic tournament, and so ICC may not have much say in how affairs are conducted, but in an international match, an overdose of the same may invite the sanction of an ‘n’ year ban from international cricket. And this may not augur too well with a stadium which wants to host a World Cup final three years later.

One can rest assure that these comments by Yuvraj Singh would have been read by almost all those who were there at the match yesterday, and would not be easily forgotten. Yuvraj Singh’s team plays their semi-final match in Mumbai, and there is no doubt in my mind, that he will be in the black books of the crowd once again.

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On a separate note, one little thing that surprised me in yesterday’s match, was Shaun Pollock’s bowling. He was by far the best bowler in either side, and yet, he bowled only three overs of his allocated four overs, especially with the rookies Yeligati and Chitnis getting hammered for a barrage of runs. That, in the end could have been one of the factors that made the difference between a win and a loss where the margin was only a run!