Bay 13

Bay 13 is a section of tiered seating at the Melbourne Cricket Ground that occupies part of the Great Southern Stand behind the slips for a right-handed batsman, usually where third man is fielding. It is well known in the cricket world as a centre for rowdy spectators to congregate at the cricket and participate in practices such as Mexican waves, beach ball throwing and other disorderly conduct, often including abuse chanting towards opposition players.^[1]

History

Historically, Bay 13 is unofficially seen as an important part of the MCG's atmosphere and environment. Iconic pictures are regularly repeated in cricket coverage of the crowd mimicking Merv Hughes' warm up stretches in front of the Bay 13 mob.

Criticism

Bay 13 is situated almost opposite across the ground from the members stand and despite efforts to tame the behaviour of the crowd from this section of the ground, it has the worst behaved crowds of all the cricketing venues in the country. Particularly in recent times the section has been criticised for poor and drunken behaviour.^[2] In January 1999, Shane Warne was forced to come out of the change rooms and don a helmet in an attempt to calm the crowd who had disrupted a one-day match by throwing bottles onto the pitch. A string of incidents involving projectiles being thrown onto the MCG playing arena during one-day internationals in the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade) prompted authorities to beef up security presence around the Bay 13 area, which has led to a reduction of Bay 13 hooliganism in recent years. However, unruly crowds are becoming more of a problem at Victorian Bushrangers home games, which can attract huge crowds but have only a minuscule security presence compared to international games.

At the 2005 Boxing Day test, reports of people throwing cups of urine and other liquids into the air during Mexican waves were downplayed by patrons of Bay 13.

Racism

In more recent times, Bay 13 has often been accused of racially abusing opposition teams, fans and players. The first such instance occurred on Boxing Day, 2005, when Bay 13 directed racial taunts in Afrikaans at South African fast bowler André Nel.^[3] Then during the 2007 Boxing Day Test, patrons in Bay 13 chanted "Show us your visa" to Indian fans. In two ODIs against Sri Lanka in February 2008 the "Show us your visa" chant was targeted at Sri Lankan fans.

It is common for spectators in Bay 13 to abuse - or even throw objects at - opposition fielders who field in front of them at fine leg or third man (or long-on or long-off from the other end), often with obscene gestures and chanting.

References

Coordinates: 37°49′12″S 144°59′0″E / 37.82000°S 144.98333°E / -37.82000; 144.98333