MCC Squirm Over Bungled Security

England are on the verge of a comprehensive victory today in the first Test, but off the field the sound was one of heavy Indian points-scoring as the MCC launched a sheepish investigation into a bungled security incident involving Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar was even lauded last week for daring to sit at the front of the team coach (something to do with his wondrous ability to cope with fame), so the fact that, after his dismissal yesterday, he was chaperoned by a spectator wandering dopily around the outfield, caused immediate Indian consternation.

"It could have been a disaster," said the Indian team manager, Ranga Reddy. "The man could have been a terrorist. This is unacceptable."

Reddy will contact the Indian board, in which case a loud protest from its president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, is inevitable. An Indian delegation spent nearly a fortnight in England checking security arrangements - a tit-for-tat response to England's terrorism concerns in India last winter in the wake of September 11.

Lord's security was breached when a man, conservatively attired in blue shirt and tie, and an MCC member's guest no less, wandered unchallenged out of the Warner Stand and offered Tendulkar a consoling arm. Indians might be a touchy-feely lot, but there are limits.

He was later identified as a 24-year-old member of the Melbourne Cricket Club which at least gave the MCC the consolation of blaming an Australian.

"We were shocked," Reddy said. "We had been told that security would be tight. That has not been the case. If it had happened in India, the police would have surrounded him on the pitch and arrested him.

"Sachin is the greatest player in the world. He expects this sort of thing to be dealt with quickly. What happened was unacceptable and we need to make sure that this doesn't happen again. Security was very tight when England came to India and we expect the same thing here."

Roger Knight, MCC's chief executive, offered abject apologies, and needed to. It was hopeless stewarding, possibly explained by the man being mistaken for a member of the Channel 4 crew. The trespasser was arrested in the pavilion and will be charged with a public order offence - unless Dalmiya insists upon the Terrorism Act.

To make matters worse, the MCC suffered not one security embarrassment yesterday but two. Harsha Bhogle's fame is not yet so established that he is praised for where he sits on buses, but he is India's celebrity voice of cricket. And that voice was full of condemnation.

Bhogle accused Lord's of institutionalised rudeness as he described how an altercation with a steward upon leaving the ground late on Saturday night ended with one of his colleagues from ESPN, the leading Asian sports channel, being pushed to the ground.

"I am not playing a race card," Bhogle said, "but Lord's need to be made aware that rudeness is not an option. I first covered cricket in England in 1990 and Lord's is the only ground where this attitude persists. Rudeness is institutionalised."

Bhogle claimed that he was leaving Lord's by the North Gate at 9.25pm when his mobile phone rang. He retreated into the ground to make a broadcast, and was challenged by a steward "who had an unfinished beer bottle in hand". When Bhogle showed his pass, the steward "sneered" and he and a supervisor ordered his party to leave.

It was then, according to Bhogle, that the steward pushed an ESPN reporter, Gautam Bhimani, to the ground and "slammed the iron gate shut on my nose". According to Bhogle, the steward, of West Indian origin, shouted: "I am not on duty and you can't touch me. I will be here on duty even after you are dead. Go home, man. If you were in your country you would have been beaten with sticks."

MCC's head of communications, Iain Wilton, said that statements were being taken from all involved, and CCTV footage was being studied.

This is the second incident at Lord's in a fortnight. Gurbux Singh, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, was arrested outside the ground after the NatWest series final and charged with threatening behaviour.