Police Eject 'feral Minority' From The Mcg
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 14, 2007
A "FERAL minority" of cricket fans marred the one-day international at the MCG on Friday night, with 190 people ejected from the ground.
Police spokesman Stephan Leane said men aged between 18 and 25 were the main offenders and a big problem was that some fans were smuggling alcohol into the venue."There still seems to be some segments of the crowd more interested in misbehaving and disrupting the enjoyment of others than watching the actual matches," Leane said.Of those ejected, 84 were removed by police and 106 by MCG security staff. A further three people were arrested for being drunk, one for assault and one for possessing amphetamines.Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said the crowd behaviour on Friday night was excellent apart from "a feral minority"."People should be able to come to the ground and have an enjoyable night out without having their evening disrupted," Young said. "We certainly don't want that to happen and we're working closely with venue security, police and the Melbourne Cricket Club to ensure it doesn't happen."He said the number of people ejected for poor behaviour had dropped in recent years and Friday night's problems occurred towards the end of the match. "We still need to persuade a small minority of people not to ruin the night for someone else and, if you do, we're going to have to throw you out."
© 2007 The Sunday Age