The Melbourne Cricket Ground's status as a one-day venue is in doubt, according to a report in the Australian newspaper, The Age, after crowd disturbances interrupted New Zealand's surprise victory over Australia in the opening match of the VB Series on Friday. Twenty-two arrests and 250 evictions were made by Victoria state police, with the bulk of the unrest centring on the MCG's notorious Bay 13 area. New Zealand's captain, Stephen Fleming, was particularly concerned after a bottle landed near his opening batsman Mark Richardson, fielding on the boundary.

"You can't put people in that position," said Fleming. "We're there to entertain, we're not there to be spat at and have stuff thrown at us … It's not worth a guy getting a bottle in the back of the head."

Such disturbances are not new to the MCG. Chief executive Stephen Gough described the behaviour as an "annual mob mentality", and during the last Ashes tour in 1998-99, Shane Warne came onto the field of play to make a personal appeal to his home crowd.

Aside from the bottle-throwing, the New Zealand innings was twice halted by pitch invasions, and James Sutherland, chief executive of the Australian Cricket Board admitted that the incidents reflected badly on the MCG, at a time when the ICC is cracking down on unsuitable venues.

"We've seen it all before," said Sutherland, "and basically it's unacceptable. The behaviour of a small minority is actually putting one-day cricket at this ground at risk. It's as simple as that."

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd