Bay 13

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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. It is well known by Melburnians who frequent the cricket as a centre for louts to congregate at the cricket and participate in practices such as Mexican waves, beach ball throwing and other disorderly conduct.

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[edit] 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.

[edit] 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, the group has led the MCG to gain the title of having one of the worst behaved crowds of all the cricketing venues. Particularly in recent times the section has been criticised for poor and drunken behaviour. 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. Scantily clad women known as 'beer wenches' have recently been banned from the ground because of their role of supplying drunken men with alcohol while remaining sober and then driving the drunken men home afterwards for a reasonable fee. There have also been calls for the Mexican wave to be banned at the MCG in following suit with other bans at grounds in Australia. 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. It is also where the Mexican wave starts.

[edit] 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 Andre Nel. 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.

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[edit] External links