The standoff between cricket authorities, police and a British "pitchsider" continues, with a 30-year-old man arrested at Saturday night's Big Bash League derby in Sydney after being ejected from two other games in the city in the previous week.
Rajiv Mulchandani was charged over alleged trespass offences after being found to have re-entered ANZ Stadium, a venue from which he had six days earlier been banned.
He was also evicted from the Sixers' opening-game win over Melbourne Renegades at the SCG on December 19 and from two BBL games last season - at the SCG and Melbourne's Etihad Stadium - when spotted stationed with a laptop computer in the crowd. He had been issued a ban notice from the Sydney Olympic Park precinct when removed from Sydney Thunder's match against Brisbane Heat last Sunday.
Mulchandani was suspected by police and cricket anti-corruption officials at the grounds of engaging in "pitchsiding", an activity where a spectator uses the slight time difference in international television broadcasts to place in-play bets on the match they are watching live. The advantages gained by betting from the venue through overseas gambling organisations like Betfair in the UK can be extremely lucrative.
The practice is not a criminal offence, but is increasingly being heavily frowned upon by the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia, who are attempting to stamp it out at their grounds and are lobbying to have governments introduce legislation to ban it in Australia.
Their only tool against it as it stands is ejecting spectators from venues for breaches of conditions of the terms of entry.
That has been the explanation for the alleged pitchsider, a British citizen, being tossed out of BBL games five times in the past year now.
Mulchandani was granted conditional bail and will appear at Burwood Local Court on January 20.
