Two members of the crowd present at the Hampshire Bowl were ejected on the fifth day of the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. Those fans were ejected by the ground security team employed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) which said that it received reports of abuse against New Zealand players.
"We received reports of abuse directed at the New Zealand players. Our security team were able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the ground. We will not tolerate any sort of abusive behaviour in cricket,” ICC said in its statement.
The ICC has not received any detailed account of what happened on the fifth day but ESPNcricinfo reported that incidents occurred in the M block of the ground and the abuses were both’ racial and general’ in nature.
The latest case of racism and ejection of fans is the second such case this year after Indian players were subjected to racial abuse on the tour of Australia earlier this year. Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj was hurled abuse while fielding at the fine leg which also prompted the halting of the game for some time leading to the ejection of fans from the Sydney Cricket Ground.