04 December,2009 07:17 AM IST | | Amol Karhadkar
The Mumbai crowd for a cricket match seems to be getting worse with every passing match. After booing Sachin Tendulkar and abusing most of the England cricketers, especially Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar, during the Wankhede Test in March 2006 and directing racial chants at Andrew Symonds during the one-dayer against Australia in October 2007, they were at it yet again at the Brabourne Stadium yesterday.
It all started off with the North Stand, occupied mostly by youngsters, showing dissent towards Brad Hogg, the former Australian cricketer who is now a commentator, by chanting "Aussie sucks, Aussie sucks" whenever he went out of the commentary box during the second day's play of the third Test against Sri Lanka.
Later, a few youngsters started abusing Sri Lanka's 12th man Ajantha Mendis. At this point, the authorities stepped in and the police took three youngsters into custody and forced them to sit in the lower tier of the stand. After a while, one of those three, Rupak Lele (20) was taken to the Marine Drive Police Station and charged for "indecent behaviour in public" under section 110 of the Bombay Police Act.
The FYBA collegian was apologetic after paying a fine of Rs 1,200 and assuring an appearance in court today. "It wasn't only me. I was the unfortunate one (to have been caught)," Lele told MiD DAY. "I feel sorry for what I did. Given an opportunity, I will personally apologise to Mendis."
Though Lele, who quit playing cricket after finishing school, maintained he will keep on watching the game that he loves from the stands, he seems to have learnt his lesson.
"The next time I will go to watch a cricket match, I will not utter a word that could offend any player," Lele said. "I will only cheer one of the two teams India, on most occasions."
