London, August 06: Former captain Nasser Hussain has called for the Headingly crowd to behave in a more appropriate manner in the fourth Test and asked not to let cricket support go any further down the line taken by football.
Hussain also expressed his disappointment over the way Australian captain Ricky Ponting was booed by the Edgbaston crowd in the drawn third Test and said such a behaviour by the home team supporters was absolutely unacceptable.
”We have asked for the support of the English crowds and we want them to do everything possible to give England an advantage but they must be very careful not to overstep the line. ”And booing Ricky Ponting is an unacceptable development. I do not think there is any malice involved and I think the supporters at Edgbaston were trying to turn the Australian captain into a sort of pantomime villain – barracking him in a jovial way – when they booed him,” Hussain wrote in his column for The Daily Mail.
The former English batsman also feared that the crowd at Headingly is even more ill-behaved than what the series has has seen so far and Hussain has himself had a taste of it.
”I take my boys to Premier League matches and it astonishes me to see people all around me shouting, swearing, making gestures and spitting abuse at players. Yes, you support your own side but surely you have to respect the opposition. ”I sit there in awe at what players can do, players from either side, but all around me I see hate,” he added.
Hussain further revealed that at Edgbaston, things were on the verge of going out of hands when Ponting was abused by an English supporter and the Aussie captain alsop came back at him.
However, with Sky, which has the telecasting rights for the series, it was decided not to televise those visuals which could have well reminded of Ponting’s famous outburst at Trent Bridge in 2005.
”I will tell you a story from Edgbaston that worries me. The Sky cameras picked up a supporter hurling abuse at Ponting after he was out in the first innings, making his way back to the pavilion. ”The Australian captain was having a go back at him. But the decision was made not to televise the exchange because you could clearly hear and see that both men were swearing,” he revealed. He also suggested the English crowd that the best way to unsettle Ponting is to keep quite and advised that even if the Australian skipper is out cheaply, the home team’s suuporters should not say anything to him.
”The best way England supporters can unsettle Ponting is, actually, to not say anything at all.
”My advice to the Leeds crowd tomorrow is for them to say absolutely nothing if Ponting is out cheaply,” he wrote.
—-Agencies