Pitch battle

England captain Alec Stewart was forced to concede defeat in yesterday's one-day international against Pakistan at Yorkjshire County Cricket Club's headquarters when fans swarmed on to the pitch despite the warnings which followed similar scenes at Edgbaston on June 7.

Steward Stephen Speight was today said to be 'comfortable' having spent the night in Leeds General Infirmary after suffering broken ribs and damage to his spleen in the chaos.

Nottinghamshire CCC's chief executive David Collier has extended the security operation at Trent Bridge with fences and 350 stewards.

He said: "We will be doubling the number of stewards and have also contacted the RFU who have been most helpful.

"We will be using plastic barrier fencing which the RFU have used in recent years. It has been very successful and that will be used tomorrow night.

"You can never have a total optimum number (of stewards) but it's double what we were anticipating.

"We do need to get the message out and there will be Urdu and Punjabi speakers on the public address system and there will be posters asking people to assist us."

Collier also revealed that he will contact the Home Office in a bid to see stricter penalties imposed on supporters who run on to the pitch.

He said: "I shall be recontacting the Home Office this morning. We have previously been in contact with the Home Office through the ECB to see if we can prevent people coming on with deterrent penalties such as fines.

"Certainly we will be re-contacting the Home Office to see if that can be utilised in both the short and long term."

England chairman of selectors David Graveney has admitted there is a real concern from within the sport after the recent pitch invasions.

Graveney declared: "I wasn't actually at the game, I was at Lord's addressing the ICC (International Cricket Committee) on behalf of various players' associations around the world on this very subject as it happened.

"The players from around the world have concerns and the Australians particularly have expressed those concerns - many people remember Steve Waugh nearly being hit by a bottle.

"It's taken a serious injury to a steward (to highlight the problem). It can be a steward, a player or an umpire - they are all at risk. There is an urgent need to discuss the matter."

Graveney highlighted Australia as the only country in world cricket which has managed to contain the problem of crowd invasions - but he warned against punishing teams involved in pitch invasions.

"There is only one country, Australia, I have been to where they appear to resolve the situation better than anyone else.

"They have severe penalties, life bans, severe fines and short stays in prison.

"I think it would be difficult to apportion the blame to 11 cricketers. Having witnessed the way the Birmingham game ended I have to say there was a number of England supporters among the Pakistanis."

Yorkshire chief executive Chris Hassell believes the Headingley club did all they could to prevent another pitch invasion.

"I don't honestly think any other measures we could have taken would have made any significant difference because if a couple of thousand people want to get onto the pitch it would take a huge army to stop them.

"So we have to go down some different routes such as legislation and banning people coming onto the pitch at any time."

Hassell advocated the Australian way, with stiff fines acting as a deterrent, but said the South Africa's use of dogs at cricket matches was not suitable.

"We've got to consider everything, but I'm not a great believer in dogs in a busy situation. It's not ideal."

Hassell said that supporters are banned from running on to the pitch at football matches and those that defied the stewards were arrested and fined.

"We need some help from the Government in terms of legislation. It's our job to protect them (the players), but it's easier said than done."

Updated: 12:25 Monday, June 18, 2001