Cricket: Kent squad to stop streakers
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.AN ANTI-STREAKER squad has been enlisted as part of the security measures for England's World Cup Group A match against Kenya at Canterbury today. The chill wind gusting across the St Lawrence Ground yesterday would hardly encourage anyone to strip off, but nevertheless Kent are taking no chances.
Half-a-dozen stewards will make up the squad for the match, which is set to attract a sell-out crowd of 9,600. Bernard Thompson, Kent's assistant secretary, said: "We've have got a group of young people together to prevent it happening. The plan will be to spot the people who might try it on and stop them getting on to the pitch. We don't want a silly chase around the outfield."
The team will be part of a group of 115 stewards on duty for England's first international match at Kent's headquarters. That is two-thirds more than would usually be employed for a Kent fixture. Ten police officers will also be on duty, but county officials are not expecting trouble. Additionally, spectators will not be allowed to bring alcohol into the ground, and cool boxes will be searched at the gate.
BBC Scotland yesterday claimed it was forced into a balancing act with its World Cup coverage to satisfy the demands of Scotland's Pakistani community. The broadcaster suspended coverage of Scotland's match with Australia at Worcester after the first hour to switch to a live broadcast of the West Indies' meeting with Pakistan at Bristol instead. That prompted a series of complaints from Scottish fans, including the parents of the side's captain, George Salmond, who had been unable to make the trip down from Arbroath for health reasons.
The BBC did rejoin the Scottish innings for the closing 10 overs, and when it did so the response was a series of calls from angry Pakistani viewers who had settled into watching their team's game.
A BBC Scotland spokesman, Roy Templeton, said: "We would apologise to those who felt they didn't get the coverage they were expecting, but we had set out what we going to do in advance.
"When a clash like this happens you are never going to please everyone and when we moved away from the Pakistan and West Indies match we had complaints from Scotland's large Pakistani community.
"In the end we received a number of calls from both Scotland and Pakistan supporters, but can inform both that we should have uninterrupted coverage of both this Thursday as they play each other."
The BBC could have stayed with the Scotland game north of the border and only made the change in England, but decided there was equal interest in both fixtures.
Templeton insisted: "We did have a look at whether we should have regionalised the coverage and took the view that cricket fans would probably want to see action from both games."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
0Comments