Over-zealous security

We enjoyed our day at Eden Park on Saturday. The result did not go the way that we had hoped, but this is a very good England side (there: I said it Barnsley), and New Zealand will face a stiff challenge in the upcoming test series.

But not everyone made it to the end of the match; the Herald reports:

Cricket fans were evicted from Eden Park for throwing paper darts, trying to start Mexican waves and even cheering too enthusiastically in a "bonehead" security crackdown that raised the ire of a top Black Cap.
Police said 87 people were thrown out of the ground during the New Zealand-England one-day international on Saturday - but none were arrested or charged.
Injured Black Caps bowler Mitchell McClenaghan took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the security.
"People getting kicked out for starting Mexican waves tonight ... I'm sorry but that is ridiculous!" he wrote. Followed by: "How are we to get support if it's not enjoyable to come and spend a day out :("
One fan - dressed as a rabbit - was ejected for trying to start a Mexican wave, while several were thrown out for making darts out of paper "4/6" signs that were handed to spectators as they entered the ground.
Herald cricket columnist and long-time fan Jeremy Wells described the oppressive nature of the security operation as "insane".
"Security is there to enforce the ground rules for people's safety, but I didn't see anybody's safety jeopardised at all," he said.
"All I saw was boneheads kicking people out for doing nothing."

We're with Jeremy Wells here. From where we were seated, we had a great view of the terraces at the Cricket Avenue end. And we saw a number of instances of security personnel being somewhat over-zealous, including some of the "incidents" referred to above. Sadly, the Fun Police was out in force.

It was a glorious summer's day, and people were there to enjoy the occasion. There was no trouble whatsoever that we saw when the security guards started to enlist the help of the police to evict spectators.

There were no streakers, and no pitch invasions. We didn't see any fights on the terraces, and apart from the occasional wind-blown beach ball floating over the advertising hoardings, nothing was being thrown onto the ground or at players.

The result of the match was a foregone conclusion from well before the innings break, so it's only natural that there was a degree of restlessness amongst the crowd. But in our ever-humble opinion, guards over-reacted.

Sure; they have a tough job, and there's a fine line between good-natured banter and fun, and widespread disorder. But once the evictions started, they made a rod for their own backs.

At one point during England's chase, a guard confiscated a beach ball, hiding it behind the hoardings. The ball boys tried to rescue it, but the guard wouldn't let them. A chant of "We want our ball back" sprung up from the terraces, and was picked up around the ground. Tim Southee was thwarted once by the guard, but under the guise of signing an autograph got the ball back into the crowd, to loud cheering.

If New Zealand Cricket is serious about attracting a new audience, it needs to take a good look at Saturday's events surrounding security. Why would anyone pay good money to go to the cricket when "boneheads" as Jeremy Wells describes them throw people out for merely having fun?