It's a disgrace for India, and it's not the cricket. For three games in a row, play has been disturbed because of missiles thrown at outfielders by unruly elements in the crowd. What is worrying is that it's not some lunatic fringe that is responsible – chucking is a dangerously common phenomenon among Indian crowds, and it happens at centres across the country. Crowds across the country consider it legitimate entertainment to throw things at other sections of the crowd and onto the field. Being at a cricket match, more than mere entertainment, can also serve as a release for all the pent-up frustrations of the invariably sordid lives the troublemakers lead. Obviously then, the onus is on the local authorities to make sure that this kind of nonsense does not take place.

But the authorities are outrageously lax when it comes to taking action. At ground after ground in India, one sees masses of pot-bellied policemen lumped together in irrelevant pockets watching the match and not the crowds. When people in the crowds start chucking, they do so with a safety in numbers, and the policemen do nothing to intervene. One almost feels that had they not been in uniform, they would have liked to join in the fun.

The logical response to this on ICC's part is to ban the venue in question for a fixed period of time, so that other local associations are especially careful about this issue. While that is ideal in principal, realpolitik often ensures that it doesn't happen in practice. Kolkata has been a prime offender in the past – the 1996 World Cup semi-final and the Test against Pakistan in 1998-99 being particularly grotesque examples. And yet, despite much tough talk, no action was ever taken against them, perhaps because Kolkata is the base of Jagmohan Dalmiya.

One hopes that similar inaction is not the case here. The regional cricket associations which would be affected by a punishment form part of the votebank which has elected and keeps Dalmiya in power, and it will be difficult for Dalmiya to ignore those considerations in whatever he does now. ICC may also move gingerly, not wishing to complicate a relationship with Dalmiya and the BCCI that is already on edge. But three matches in a row is not an aberration that can be wished away, and for the sake of cricket, both parties must act.

ICC have their man on the spot in Mike Procter, the match-referee, and they must take the matter out of Dalmiya's hands in doling out punishment to the venues concerned, perhaps even to his relief. And they must take that action now, so that the rest of this series will not be similarly impeded. West Indies were urged to continue in the last two games, but they were justified in refusing today. A single errant missile is all it takes to cause severe injury to a player, and West Indies must show zero tolerance towards such behaviour. So must ICC.

For the future, preventive measures such as the netting used by the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore could be used across more grounds in India. But a knottier issue arises over what result should be declared when a match is disturbed and, perhaps, abandoned like this one. It doesn't make sense to use Duckworth Lewis, as was done in this game, because the interuption in question is not due to natural causes. In the 1996 World Cup the semi-finals at the Eden Gardens were awarded to Sri Lanka, with India penalised because the disturbance was caused by the home crowd. But what of an India-England match at Leeds which is disrupted by Indian elements in the crowd? Or by Pakistanis? There is plenty of scope for ambiguity here, and the best option is an annulment of the match followed by disciplinary action against the host association.

The sad part of the disturbance was that the match was well set up for a good finish. India appeared set up for an easy win, and that marked a paradigm shift in itself. Till a couple of years back, India were notoriously bad at chasing, always crumbling at the crunch. In recent times, with a change in the balance of the team, India have managed to find the nerve to chase. But their bowling has been so abysmal and the pitches so loaded towards batsmen that they haven't managed to defend any total that their batsmen have put up batting first. West Indies, with an exciting posse of young batsmen but a mediocre bowling attack, face much the same problem.

For all those who believe that India can be a threat in the forthcoming World Cup, the bowling is a worry. India have traditionally relied on their spinners to dry up the runs in the middle overs, but if Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble can't do that in India with an SG ball, what chance will they have in South Africa with a Kookaburra? Ashish Nehra has bowled better at the death than he had during the NatWest series earlier this year, but worse with the new ball. Ajit Agarkar bowls like the batting allrounder he wishes he was and Javagal Srinath is past his prime, which wasn't much to speak of. Too much will depend on Zaheer Khan in South Africa.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to pick up a chucker or two from the crowd.

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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