Masked riders disrupt cricket match

PHC vice-president Mark Wade has called for security to be beefed up at cricket matches after masked bikers threatened to disrupt a recent Premier match at Somerset Cricket Club.

Two men, who wearing dark visors pulled over their faces, rode an unlicensed bike through the west end sports venue causing one fielder to flee to the centre of the pitch before eventually leaving the match prematurely.

Several players on either side told the Bermuda Sun they were shaken by the incident and now fear the gang violence that has ravaged the community could spill over onto the cricket pitch.

Wade shares those concerns and has called on clubs to consider implementing robust security measures to ensure the safety of players and fans.

Bad behaviour

Sports such as football have already taken steps to rid themselves of anti-social behavioyr.

And Wade believes cricket authorities should adopt a similar approach to get a handle on the situation to prevent similar incidents such as last weekend’s game between PHC and Somerset from reoccurring.

He said: “Cricket is played at open venues but maybe we should start looking at securing venues and limiting access to the field.”

Commenting on last weekend’s incident at Somerset, Wade said: “This is indicative of where the country is at the moment.”

PHC cricketer Cal Waldron echoed Wade’s sentiments. 

He said: “It is kind of frightening when you are out there playing a cricket game cricket and then something like this happens. You really have to watch your back. Everybody was shaken up a bit by this.

“We have never had anything like this happen before — and we have played cricket all over this island.”

One Somerset source added: “We have some crazy people in our community these days - it is really scary what is going on.

“All this craziness going on in our community really makes you wonder how did we get to this point – what’s going to happen Cup Match?”

Apart from major cricket matches such as county matches and Cup Match, security is non-existent at league matches.

Unrelated to this incident, last week SCC had received final planning approval to build a seven foot wall with a six foot fence on top of that as an added security measure for most of the grounds. It will also add a three-foot high wall with an eight foot fence around the rest of the grounds.