Sunil Gavaskar has called for a boycott of certain venues after the appalling scenes that marred West Indies' victory over India in the first one-day international at Jamshedpur on Wednesday. With bottles raining down onto the field and bonfires being lit in the stands, play was stopped for over ten minutes as the match neared a thrilling finish.

Mike Procter, the ICC match referee, initially abandoned play and awarded the game to the West Indies before the players persuaded him to allow the game to be completed. Ramnaresh Sarwan's last-ball four off Ajit Agarkar sealed a famous victory, but it was the crowd behaviour that concerned everyone after the match.

"Crowds that cannot accept an Indian defeat should get no cricket whatsoever," said Gavaskar, who is now in charge of ICC's cricket committee. "The Indian board must seriously start thinking of not only banning venues where there is crowd disturbance, but also heavily fining the staging association for not ensuring proper conduct of the match," he said in a stinging indictment of the Jamshedpur organisers.

The Bihar Cricket Asociation, which was the host for the game, is headed, ironically, by a former police chief of the state, Amitabh Chowdhury. But there was very little law and order on view as the Neanderthals took charge, concentrating their ire on Indian players.

Procter said he would report the match to ICC, which later said it was committed to safeguarding the players. "The ICC and representatives of boards and the players are working together to ensure that every country has in place effective safety and security plans at all venues," said Malcolm Speed, ICC's chief executive, from London.

But if the past is any guide, there will be few repercussions. The Eden Gardens in Kolkata was once India's most famous venue, but its reputation was tarnished by incidents that forced the 1996 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka to be abandoned. Three years later, Pakistan beat India behind closed doors after trouble in the stands forced the police to vacate them.

Three of the next six one-day internationals will be played in Gujarat (at Rajkot, Baroda and Ahmedabad), which has been in the international spotlight ever since hundreds were killed in communal violence earlier this year. "We are keeping our fingers crossed," said a BCCI official, who was perhaps thankful that it was West Indies and not Pakistan who were playing. He wouldn't comment, however, on the rationale behind awarding matches to such venues.

ICC said it would study Procter's report before passing judgment. The slap on the wrist should be a genuine one, not a pat. And while they're at it, they would also do well to investigate the tasteless and puerile racial slurs to which certain West Indian players were subjected, especially in Mumbai.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd