The first-class umpires are so concerned about unruly behaviour from supporters and an occurrence of theft in Twenty20 Cup matches that their chairman is planning to write to the ECB this week suggesting that professional security guards be employed during the competition next year. Peter Willey, the former England batsman, feels that the task of stewarding large crowds is beyond the archetypal elderly gateman.

Willey also intends to raise the issue in the umpires’ annual meeting with Alan Fordham, the operations director of the ECB. He was officiating at Whitgift School in Surrey on June 3 when Andre Nel, who was playing for Essex, complained to him after being insulted with a term of racial abuse that can lead to a criminal conviction in his native South Africa. The spectator was spotted by Surrey’s stewards and ejected from the ground.

That occasion was during a Friends Provident Trophy match and Willey cited two other instances of abusive behaviour in Twenty20 matches. Nic Pothas, the acting Hampshire captain, claimed his players were abused by spectators after their match at Southgate. Valuables were stolen from the Middlesex dressing-room during the evening. Robert Croft, the former England off spinner, objected to personal remarks made to him when Glamorgan were playing Somerset in front of a packed crowd at Taunton.

“This has happened because the weather has been so bad,” Willey said. “In past years the sun has shone, but this season spectators have sat around drinking pints and perhaps the information they have been given over the Tannoy has not been as good as it should have been. There is adequate protection at the big grounds and there is always security to help the players and officials off the field at a Test venue, although both umpires at a Twenty20 match at the Oval last year were wary about going up the steps to their room. The outgrounds are a different matter because spectators can approach the players.

“There might be some clubs who will be reluctant to employ security guards, but how expensive is a life? Those clubs would not want to be sued. And we don’t want the kids to hear foul and abusive language. I can only remember one match in my days as a player when a spectator had a go at me, during a Sunday League match at Gloucester. I did not go looking for him and we won the match and went home. But I feel a player is within his rights to complain, as Nel did to me, if the comments become personal.

“There is so much excitement and expectation for Twenty20 cricket for a few hours. When the competition started, I thought it was a load of rubbish, but now I reckon it is good fun and most umpires enjoy standing in the matches – after all, 2½ hours in the middle is a doddle. There is generally a good atmosphere and the matches are played in the right spirit. The pity is that not many of the spectators who come are returning for four-day championship matches.”

Willey, a fearless cricketer in his playing days and a strong man to boot, as reputedly Ian Botham discovered when it came to arm-wrestling contests, does not know how many security guards a county club would require for a Twenty20 match but does not think it is necessary to erect the kind of tunnel that provides protection for footballers and referees when they leave the field.

“I was playing in the Centenary Test when an MCC member grabbed David Constant, one of the umpires, around the throat because there was no play going on in bright sunshine – and that was 27 years ago,” Willey said.

–– Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowlers, look set to escape any further doping sanctions after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it was unable to hear their case. CAS dismissed an appeal brought by the World AntiDoping Agency for the reimposition of bans since the Pakistan Cricket Board does not recognise the court.