CHENNAI, India, CMC – Haroon Lorgat has described the stoning of the West Indies team bus by angry Bangladesh fans as “a minor incident” not worthy of serious sanctions.
Fans angered at the tournament co-host’s nine-wicket defeat to West Indies threw stones at the bus as it left the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in the Mirpur suburb of Dhaka on Friday to take the players back to their hotel in the Bangladesh capital.
Lorgat, chief executive of the International Cricket Council, the sport’s World governing body, under whose aegis the tournament is organised, said yesterday there were no immediate plans to move games.
“We would not move the games lightly, but it is not something which we would discount completely,” he said.
“I don’t believe this particular incident justifies any game being moved just yet.”
He added: “We will continually review. We do have contingency plans, but we have got a very, very robust security arrangement in place and I am extremely confident we will see the tournament through as scheduled.”
Police have arrested three-dozen people since the incident, and said it was a case of mistaken identity, with fans thinking it was the home team’s vehicle.
“Of course, the reaction is one of disappointment, because that’s exactly what we’d not like to see, but I think we must have perspective,” he told reporters at Chennai’s Chidambaram Stadium. “It was a minor incident.
“It was some disappointed fans, as a result of the home team being defeated so convincingly by the visitors. My understanding is that a few individuals threw pebbles at the bus, and they were pebbles.”
Lorgat insisted that security arrangements for the tournament, particularly in Bangladesh, were satisfactory.
“With that particular incident we will re-assess, but I’ve said before I am very, very pleased with the maturity of the security measures we’ve got, the expertise, the experience we’ve got on board,” he said.
Three other group matches and two quarter-finals are also scheduled for Bangladesh.
