Poor organisation at Hagley Oval ruins cricket

The organisation at Hagley Park for the cricket one-day international (ODI) on Saturday was a disaster. Everyone knew in advance that it was a sellout, but the organisers apparently did not.

Queues were enormous because there were so few entry points where bags were searched. When we eventually arrived at a check point, our bags were not checked anyway and we were waved through!

We had arrived early but were forced to miss the first 10 overs. Once we were settled on a remaining tiny patch of grass, the noisy boozers were well under way and those people with radios playing refused to turn them off; earphone use was not enforced, of course.

Meanwhile, in front of us, groups of standing people were enjoying a good old natter while play was on, apparently unaware that we and others actually wanted to watch the game. It may have been a sellout, but we felt that we had been sold down the river. Steve Wratten Lincoln

Why did VBase get it so wrong?

On Saturday morning I arrived at 10.25am for the cricket ODI at Hagley Oval, thinking that I was in good time for the 11am start. But I was amazed to see the queue then stretching all the way down to opposite the hospital, for the entrance by the St Albans clubrooms, and it took over 45 minutes to then get into the ground after joining the line. This was far longer than for any previous ODI I’d been to at the ground and was extremely frustrating, with the game being already well under way by the time I finally did get close to getting in.

At this stage a man from VBase told everyone to get their bags ready for inspection, to which a man in the line near me sarcastically said: ‘‘Don’t worry, mate, we’ve had three quarters of an hour to get ready for that.’’ The man from V Base responded: ‘‘Well, if everyone didn’t bring a bag, the line would move much quicker!’’ The crowd naturally loudly rubbished and derided him for this idiotic comment, but the question remains: Why did VBase get it so badly wrong on this occasion? They knew well in advance that the game was a sellout, so why weren’t they prepared for this? R Walker Woolston

Orweillian security

Attending what I hoped to be a glorious NZ victory in the cricket on Saturday, I was astounded not by the poor batting effort in the first innings, which was sadly predictable, but by the conduct of security staff.

I initially saw a young man escorted from the premises for partaking in a chant relating to an English fielder. All in good jest the fielder remonstrated with the crowd and everyone thought that was the end of it. However, security had other ideas.

A few moments later security were at it again removing a person who was within 2 metres of me for allegedly being a nuisance. This was news to me and the small group I was with as we hadn’t even noticed the person up until then. I inquired as to why he was being targeted and was informed that he was caught on camera saying something offensive. No idea what it was as he wasn’t yelling. I inquired further and was told NZ Cricket themselves picked something up on a security camera and instructed security to remove him. This sounded very Big Brother to me and frankly left me feeling very uneasy.

Later in the evening I encountered some other gentlemen who had a very different take on the game. They had been assaulted not once but twice by the same individuals inside the stadium. This astounded me after seeing the heavyhandedness of security myself.

The difference? One group was in a hospitality tent. The other in general admission. So not only are you being watched and listened to at the cricket, it would also seem that there are some people who are more equal than others. Nigel Gilmore Waltham