Venue change Referee calls for Bourda Ground to forfeit right to host April 22, 1999 Posted: Thursday April 22, 1999 03:02 PM GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) -- Referee Raman Subba Row is to complain officially to the International Cricket Council and the West Indies Cricket Board over security at the Bourda Ground and called for it to lose the right to host future matches. The former England test player was reacting to a violent pitch invasion which brought a confused end to the fifth one-day international between West Indies and Australia on Wednesday. "They [the police] really were desperately disappointing which must, I think, prejudice the future of cricket being played here again," Subba Row said. "You can't have that sort of risk with players. It's sad for Georgetown being such an historic venue and also for West Indies cricket but if they can't run it then they can't run it." As match referee, he declared the match a tie after thousands of fans stormed on to the ground as Australian batsmen Steve Waugh and Shane Warne tried to complete a run which would have levelled the scores. In the ensuing melee, Waugh, the Australian captain, suffered whiplash as he struggled to escape from the field. Subba Row, who witnessed a similar invasion on the same ground in 1993 in a one-day match against Pakistan, said he had discussed the matter with Georgetown police before the game but they had failed to take the appropriate action in the tense closing stages. He said it would be up to the ICC and the West Indies Cricket Board as to whether further international fixtures would be scheduled for the Guyanese capital. "I'll be quite surprised if the Board rushes back here with more games after what happened," he said. The intimate Bourda Ground holds a special place in West Indian cricket history as it was the site of the team's first ever home test victory, by 289 runs over England in the third Test of the 1929-30 series. Waugh also lashed out at the lack of protection afforded players from both teams and described the invasion, which led to a delay of more than an hour before Subba Row investigated the incident and pronounced the match a tie, as "crazy and ridiculous." "It makes you wonder is the game really worth playing in that situation?," Waugh said. "I genuinely feared for my safety and so did Shane [Warne] at the other end, as did all the West Indian players." The seven-match one-day series remains level at 2-2 with the final two matches to be played in Barbados on Saturday and Sunday.