Emergency legislation for Pak-Aus match

Shyam Bhatia
India Abroad correspondent in London

Extra stewards and plastic fencing will be in place as Australia meets Pakistan for the one-day international match at Trent Bridge.

After last Sunday's pitch invasion at Headingley that left a steward with two broken ribs and an injured spleen, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Nottinghamshire CCC are also trying to obtain emergency powers to fine any fans who run onto the field during Tuesday's match.

"We are trying to push through emergency legislation to make it a finable offence to come on to the pitch at Trent Bridge," an ECB spokesman said.

Sports Minister Richard Caborn confirmed, "I will be speaking to the Home Secretary David Blunkett and I have asked my officials to see what can be done immediately."

Nottingham chief executive David Collier added, "We've got Urdu and Punjabi speakers on our public address, we've got posters that we've printed up asking people to assist us.

"The Pakistani community are very enthusiastic about their cricket and we do wish to appeal to them to work with us to maintain safety. "

Pending the legislation, cricket officials at Trent Bridge will have to rely for crowd control on the temporary measures that were agreed late on Monday night.

On Monday the Aussies' team manager Steve Bernard, one of the key officials who can activate the temporary fencing in the event of trouble, explained how it will work.

"If there are 15 runs to get or two wickets to fall the stewards will automatically put them (the fencing) up," Bernard said.

"But if we feel there is danger before then we will be asking for those barriers to be put up earlier than that.

"What you are trying to do is buy time with a barrier there to give the players the chance to get off."

But Aussie captain Steve Waugh said his team would be pulled out at the first sign of trouble.

"If it gets out of control we will be off the ground until they get it right," Waugh declared.

"It is the same as anywhere else; if you feel threatened or in danger you let the umpires know and you go off."

Waugh acknowledged the ECB's hard work to defuse potential problems. "They have gone through a lot of trouble and they have employed a lot of people - so we must hope it works", he said at a press briefing on Monday night. " At the moment you are trusting people to do the right thing."

But Waugh also disclosed he had unpleasant memories of Australia's last meeting with Pakistan in this tournament at Cardiff 10 days ago.

"We were at Cardiff and we saw a young English boy being belted up by a group of Pakistanis, and nobody did anything about it," he explained.

"When that sort of thing happens you think 'what is going on here?' Security just was not good enough," he added.