English
New Delhi: Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga has urged his country’s fans not to “behave like Indian spectators” at cricket matches. The comment comes after the third one-day international between India and Sri Lanka at Kandy had to be stopped following crowd trouble.
“Such incidents should not be repeated. Sri Lankans love cricket, and they feel sad when we lose a match. We have made lots of sacrifices for cricket, and those sacrifices had been made while losing lots of things. Every cricketer in our team is mentally depressed,” Ranatunga was quoted as saying by dailymirror.lk.
“Therefore, I request our cricket lovers not to behave like Indian spectators. We have a very good history and culture. Such misbehaviour is not accepted in our culture and history,” he added.
Due to crowd trouble, the third ODI was stopped when India needed only eight more runs to reach the target. Seeing their team slipping to third consecutive defeat of the ODI series after being whitewashed in the Test series 3-0, the fans started throwing empty bottles onto the ground.
The trouble-making spectators were later removed from the stadium and the match resumed.
In a latest development on Tuesday following Ranatunga’s comment, the whole Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) selection committee led by Sanath Jayasuriya resigned.
The home side now hopes to find a rare win with two ODIs and one-off T20 against India left to play.
Crowd trouble is not new to cricket and fans in the past have shown their disappointment by throwing trash on the ground, especially in the Indian subcontinent.
For breaking news and live news updates, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Read more on Latest Cricket News on India.com.
