da winzada777： An Indian fan was taken into custody in connection with an assault in oneof the hospitality boxes adjoining the Indian dressing-room at SuperSportPark in Centurion
Dileep Premachandran in Centurion03-Dec-2006
Zaheer Khan was allegedly a target for some fans’ ire © Getty Images
An Indian fan was taken into custody in connection with an assault in oneof the hospitality boxes adjoining the Indian dressing-room at SuperSportPark in Centurion. The man, who is also alleged to have thrown a bottle atZaheer Khan, apparently manhandled a woman when she tried to prevent himfrom gaining access to the dressing-room.The Indian players had been subjected to vile abuse throughout the day,with even stalwarts like Rahul Dravid singled out forintensely personal barbs. Towards the end of the Indian innings, some fansasked Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan to come down and sign autographs. Theplayers are not allowed to do so, and the mood then turned ugly.As South Africa breezed towards the target, the abuse in both Hindi andGujarati became much more strident. And when the players came down for thepresentation ceremony, there was further heckling. According to a sourcewithin the Indian team, the same group had derided the players’ efforts atDurban and Cape Town as well.Following the presentation, Zaheer is said to have asked the securitystaff to bring the man to him. When confronted with him, Zaheer apparentlyasked him why he had thrown the bottle. He then walked away, but theindividual wasn’t prepared to let it go at that.He went around to the hospitality box and tried to force his way into thedressing-room through there. When he started manhandling the lady, herdaughter raised the alarm, and security staff apprehended him and took himinto custody. The authorities are currently trying to locate the womaninvolved in the incident to get her version of events.Corne Meyer, who handles security for the event sponsors, said that a manhad indeed been found trespassing in the dressing-room area, but declinedto comment till he had further investigated the matter.”Nothing untoward happened inside the dressing-room, and the securitypersonnel quickly got the man out of there,” said Rajan Nair, the Indianteam’s media manager when quizzed about the incident. The NorthernsCricket Union is also investigating the matter which, if true, involves aserious security breach.