KARACHI (Reuters)
Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed has played down the brick-throwing incident that saw Shoaib Akhtar injured in a one-day international against Bangladesh. "It was a very unfortunate incident and Shoaib, or any of our players, could have been hurt seriously," said Saeed. "But I give credit to the Bangladesh board and government for handling the situation very well in the aftermath. The response from their people was also very apologetic after the incident. They were chanting 'sorry, sorry' the next day in the same stadium." Shoaib was hit by part of a brick during the second one-day international at the Bangabhandu Stadium and was taken to hospital after vomiting twice. He received treatment overnight for a minor head injury and returned to Pakistan with the rest of the team on Saturday after the third and final game. Saeed said the incident, which led to a 36-minute delay in play, had not affected the good relations between the people, cricket boards and governments of the two countries. "It was a frightening experience as I don't know what hit me. But I am fine now. They all took very good care of me," Akhtar told Reuters on Saturday. It was the third incident of crowd trouble at cricket matches in the last two weeks. More than 250 people were evicted from the Melbourne Cricket Ground after spectators threw objects onto the field in New Zealand's victory over Australia on January 11, and there were similar scenes as the hosts lost to South Africa two days later. "Such incidents should not be allowed to happen. They affect the players," added Saeed. "If the idea of enjoyment of a few persons in a crowd of 40,000 to 50,000 is to try to disrupt play or hurt players, then stricter security measures need to be taken at cricket grounds." Saeed said the match referee was not happy with the incident and that the International Cricket Council (ICC) did not take a lenient view of such things. "He told us it was our decision to go on the field or not - my primary concern was for the safety of our players," said Saeed. "But the way the Bangladesh Board, sports minister and government responded, we decided to resume play." According to Saeed, Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia had kept in constant touch with her sports minister and instructed him to see that Akhtar got the best possible treatment. The Pakistan manager said Bangladesh might have lost the series but they will have gained from the experience. "For our team the tour served as soft preparations for the coming series ahead," said Saeed. "It was a chance for our boys to take off their rusty edges and get back into the swing of the game."

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