KINGSTON: Australian cricketers have witnessed a series of stoushes between eager ticket hunters at Sabina Park and have been physically harassed for tickets on the eve of the second Test against the West Indies.

In scenes in the Jamaican capital foreign to the highly-secured atmosphere at Australian grounds and other international venues, a group of men seeking tickets to Thursday's game gained access to the stadium and proceeded to hassle Australian players as they walked unaccompanied from the training nets to their dressing room at the Courtney Walsh End.

Some of the tourists, including all-rounder Shane Watson, handed over their allocation of tickets, which led to confrontations between the ticket hunters themselves, and the team bus was then briefly delayed in departing the ground at the end of Wednesday's session as a group of locals clashed in front of the bus inside the gate to Sabina Park.

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jamaican peeps are 'exuberant' #thatisall

In reply to Yamfoot

Were you trying to mug the Aussies?

Jamaicans on the map for the wrong reasons again

What kind of story is this? So, who they going sell the tickets to? Nobody's going to want to go, and once again, Sabina Park will have to contact my sister-in-law at Clan Carty to get her to bring in schoolkids for free to make up numbers....


They're just a bunch of aggressive jackasses who got into a fight over foolishness. We took an English friend of ours to Hellshire when we went back to Jamaica a month ago, and the proprietor of a fish place "clashed" with some beach-goers who were occupying his hut and were not buying. Our English friend just smiled, and went back to sun-bathing. These Aussies should do the same...if they're shaken up, then good! We need every advantage we can get over them....

Oh, these poor Aussies...I feel so sorry for these arrogant assholes.

In reply to Ridge

Them %$%$#% Yardies!

All they're doing is trying to outdo the Dominicans on the news of mugging the Aussie journalist. Here they had to go one step further and hassle the actual players.

I think it was a language problem dem aussies need to learn how fi talk patwah dominican patwah dem is everywhere even di yaad

In reply to Yamfoot

Really? Then go for a walk around your neighbourhood after dark.

In reply to mitch44

You'd be surprised at how many Jamaicans walk and jog on neighbourhood streets both in the early morning and at night.
But then, like many others, you packed up and left but still know what's going on more than those of us who are here.

In reply to Chrissy
You do not know what you are talking about. You nothing about me, and I will keep it that way.
You are trying to avoid the disgraceful behaviour of louts by getting personal.

Who allows their visitors to be treated that way and then tries to excuse it? If this had been how West Indian cricketers had been treated in Australia, there would be bloody hell on the message board.

And perhaps more important, where was the security?

Oh, but a poster suggested that if they were shaken up then good, we need every advantage we can get... why stop at "shaken up"?

But for Jamaicans it is never our fault..someone else is always to blame.

In reply to Chrissy



I am one of them on the streets every morning from 4 a.m, safe as any world capital

In reply to Chrissy

True. And that makes it the safest place in the world.



Nothing like saying "you'd be surprised" as foundation to build a good ole straw man.

In reply to mitch44

The duplicity on this board is staggering !!

In reply to mitch44

do you think the Canadian public would act any different if given the same amount of access to any professional sport team?

In reply to camos
One of my points, where was the type of security you would get at a Canadian sporting event..which is a much safer environment?

And besides the Canadian would not keep harassing the sportsman.

In reply to camos

More reason why the players should be protected from the locals!

Sounds like the security was lax here!

In reply to mitch44
agree the security situation would be much better and that is because organizers are aware of how people would behave given enough access. They probably would not be asking for tickets but would want pictures and autographs.

In reply to NineMiles

you are correct about poor security, that is one of the reasons I always say it is a waste of money to put lights at Bina,before improving the security.

In reply to DIEHARD

In downtown Kingston? Or uptown?

In reply to mitch44

Actually the Canadians would be more likely to ask for autographs. Usually a simple no or yes is sufficient to end the harassment

In reply to Walco

If you're in London, 4a.m in Brixton or Hackney is different from 4a.m in Kensington, innit?

But you don't use one section to judge all of London

In reply to DIEHARD

Okay, I will gladly join you for a 4am morning run in New Kingston next Tuesday morning. Or perhaps Mona

In reply to Walco

I would pray for your safety but somehow I believe Ja is one of the safer places to jog at 4am

In reply to Walco

Gym is 4 am, then boot camp kicks off with a run in the Liguanea area.

Once boot camp is finished in August though I'll probably be running in the Mona, New Kingston area.

If you serious, pm me

In reply to camos

Ed Sheeran was in town (London, Ontario) last week for a concert. Apparently he went out for a walk along the river, people greeted him, asked for autographs and photos... nobody mobbed him.

He's a *little* bigger deal than an Aussie cricketer....

Biggest surprise in reading this story was that there are still some Jamaicans who actually want to go to test cricket.

In reply to Disciple

So you thinking they wanted the tickets to see cricket?

In reply to DIEHARD

Boot camp??? I don't like the sound of that, so I'll pass I just do a little 3 mile run at a leisurely 9:30 to 9:45 pace.

In reply to Arawak

Nah I figured they were scalpers, but they are optimistic that there will be ppl who actually want to buy tickets.

Shame on the authorities in Jamaica

In reply to Disciple

Quite right....

When I moved back to England in 2001, a couple of weeks later, while I was walking to the post office, I was "harrassed" by a group of half a dozen white thugs, who clearly picked on me because of my race, and threw some homophobic jokes at me.

Oh, the irony...white English thugs calling a Jamaican a "poof".

When I told English peeps, they explained it away by saying that these thugs were not representative of all English peeps, and that I should just forget about it. Which I did....

I didn't run to an Aussie newspaper, and whinge about it....

That said, it wasn't the Aussie players whingeing...just the Aussie journalists. No difference between these Aussie journos and the whingeing Poms....

In reply to NineMiles

You would know. You make PED accusations against Jamaicans but get bent out of shape when the same is done to serena!

In reply to Arawak

London, ON?? Seriously? About 20 people and a stray cat live there.

PS: Would Ed be a big deal in that part of Jamaica? Just asking.

I'm surprised that this thread about some people trying to hustle some tickets is now on the verge of three pages, while the one on the Dominican mugging of the Aussie reporter could just barely make it to page 2.

Maybe it just shows the significance of Jamaica as opposed to that of a dot like Dominica.

In reply to Drapsey

Or maybe it shows how commonplace such behavior is in Jamaica and how much of a rarity it is to get mugged in Dominica.

Big dot > small dot. At the end of the day they're both dots.

In reply to Priapus

We're talking about hustling some tickets here, more commonplace than you think.

I recall some Zimbabwe dame successfully hustling Kevin Pieterson for tickets and by so doing attained hero (heroine) status.