Spectators in the MCG's famous Bay 13 have been warned to cease racially motivated taunting of Indian players and spectators after multiple complaints over the first two days of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Chants of "show us your visa" were a regular feature of the first two days, leading to a formal warning from Cricket Australia to spectators in the public area in the bottom tier of the MCG's Great Southern Stand that if the chanting did not stop then the entire bay would be ejected from the ground.
Footage of the chant, obtained by ESPNcricinfo, was passed on to CA, who in turn passed the video on to Victoria Police and stadium management. "Victoria Police and stadium security are monitoring the behaviour of the crowd in that section of the stadium," a CA spokesperson said, "and have had several discussions with those fans in that bay to remind them about appropriate crowd behaviour, as per venue entry terms and conditions."
Other chants from the bay, such as "Kohli's a wanker", were the cause for some complaints from other spectators but not deemed worthy of a warning. Similar chants about opposition players have been part of the MCG atmosphere for some years, famously including New Zealand's Sir Richard Hadlee among others.
Crowd members are encouraged to report "anti-social behaviour", while CA's ticket and entry conditions expressly prohibit any sort of racist taunting, stating in part: "I will not engage in any conduct (whether through the use of language, gestures or otherwise) which is likely to offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten, disparage or vilify any other person (including any player, match official, other official or other patron) on the basis of their gender, race, religion, culture, colour, sexual orientation, descent or national or ethnic origin.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25629483/mcg-spectators-warned-racist-taunts
