SCG facing Mexican wave crackdown

Cricket Australia (CA) has banned fans from performing the Mexican wave during the fifth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground from tomorrow.

CA spokesman Peter Young said the ban had been imposed because of the large volume of rubbish which was thrown into the air during the wave.

"The wave itself is pretty harmless but the problem is the throwing that's associated with it," he said.

"That throwing is dangerous and if you are injured by a heavy object it obviously ruins your day out.

"Objects, including heavy objects, have increasingly been thrown and we've had instances of people being injured and discomforted, and as such we've decided to ban the wave."

The ban is just one of a number of crowd control measures that have been put in place for the Test.

Fans refunded after Poms fall short

Cricket Victoria has missed a potential windfall of several million dollars after the fourth Test at the MCG finished inside three days.

Some 47,000 tickets and a series of hospitality packages had already been purchased for day four.

They will now be refunded by Cricket Victoria, with money returned minus an administration fee of $2.50.

Cricket Victoria's Jason Backhouse says despite missing the massive cash injection, they did not miss out entirely.

"We'll make money on the event. We're pretty close to reaching budget forecast, so overall we're happy with that result," he said.

"We've got to pay a refund, which doesn't really come out of the bottom line.

"I guess its more a case of what could have been. In saying that it's been a fantastic three days with 75,000 fans-plus on all three days, so it'll have been a successful Test."