By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 6, 2015 : Barabti Stadium in Cuttack may be banned as a cricket venue for sometime after crowd trouble twice brought a halt to play in a Twenty20 international against South Africa on Monday.

Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has categorically said that international cricket should no longer be played in Odisha after crowd went berserk on Monday night.

The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) on Tuesday reacted sharply to Sunil Gavaskar’s plea for banning international cricket at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack for unruly crowd behaviour, saying the former India captain has no authority to take a decision on the matter. (Barabati Stadium Joins Hall of Shame).

“Sunil Gavaskar is not the authority to take a decision about venue of international cricket matches. He is just a commentator,” OCA Secretary Ashirbad Behera said here.

Meanwhile, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday asked the principal secretary, Home, to probe into the unsavoury incident and submit a report within a month.

Patnaik expressed his anguish over the unruly behaviour of the crowd throwing plastic water bottles at the playground and disrupting the T20 match between India and South Africa on Monday night at Barabati stadium, Cuttack.

The chief minister specifically wanted to know from the police and Odisha Cricket Association [OCA] officials as to who gave permission to spectators to carry water bottles which they hurled at the Indian players when the team fared badly against the South Africans.

Observers said there was a lax security as most of the policemen on the boundary could be seen watching the match rather than facing the crowd, as is standard procedure.

The match was held up for more than 50 minutes during South Africa’s chase after spectators, largely from one section of the stadium, began throwing plastic bottles onto the field Crowd trouble forced two interruptions in play as India slid to a six-wicket defeat against South Africa.

The first bottle-throwing incident came in the break between innings – India were bowled out for 92, their lowest T20I total at home – and did not interrupt play. The second came after 11 overs of South Africa’s chase and stopped play for 27 minutes.

The players remained in the middle through the delay and play resumed at 10pm, with security personnel lining the boundaries. However, a third wave of bottle-throwing two overs later forced them off. Play resumed after a 24-minute hold-up once the police had cleared the section of the crowd causing the disruption.

Mr Patnaik convened a meeting of senior police officials and the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) authorities in the state secretariat in the evening and wanted to know from them why the crowd went berserk during the match.

The incident is the first case for the BCCI’s new president, Shashank Manohar.