Injured Steward recalls attack by Pak fans

Leeds, July 19: The steward who was severely injured during Sunday's cricket pitch invasion at Headingley said his head felt like it had been kicked around like a soccer ball.

Stephen Speight suffered a broken nose and severe bruising to his ribs and stomach after he was kicked in the face and chest by a group of fans. They were part of hundreds that charged the pitch at the end of the one-day international between England and Pakistan.

"My head felt like it had just been kicked around a football field," Speight said. His comments came as fellow steward Euan London criticised the police as ineffective and unprepared.

Speight, 31, was injured by charging Pakistani fans who ran on to the Headingley field in search of memorabilia to mark their side's impending victory. He was kicked to the ground during the pitch invasion when he ignored security guidelines and tried to save the match stumps to ensure the game could finish. He was helping England's Dominic Cork from the field when he was attacked.

Speight has worked for a security company Special Events for 18 months and as a steward at the Bradford City soccer ground for three years. Colleague Euan London said he had warned police of an impending invasion by fans 20 minutes before.

"I warned them that there would be another pitch invasion and told them that the game would have to be stopped to allow the fans to return to their seats and the match restarted," said London, who has been a steward for the past 17 years.

"But we got no help from them. It was fraught with disaster. When they came over the barriers, we knew what was going to happen but if they weren't prepared to help, our job was going to be impossible."

London said Speight had been in charge of crowd control. "The guy who got injured ignored an instruction that if they came on to the pitch, everyone was to let them have the stumps," he said.

"He was trying to stop them from getting the stumps so the game could carry on and that's why he got a shoeing." Former Test umpire Dickie Bird said he was angry, hurt and miserable after watching Speight being attacked on Sunday.

"I saw the love of my life, the game of cricket, being abused and trampled into the dust and the experience has left me feeling broken hearted and desperately sad," Bird told The Daily Mail.

"After seeing that poor steward lying there hurt while people ran onto the pitch blowing hooters and waving flags, I'm terribly depressed about the game, and that is something I never thought I'd hear myself say."