New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) Seeing the overwhelming number of fans in attendance for the Delhi-Railways Ranji Trophy game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has stated that more gates are slated to be open for letting in spectators keen to see Virat Kohli in action.
Sources in the DDCA told IANS that once the VIP movement, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, is cleared after 11am, the association will open rest of the gates in the stadium to allow for more fans entry, as Kohli marks his return to Ranji Trophy after more than 12 years.
The sources have also said that top DDCA officials are currently meeting to get food arrangements for fans up and running from day one. It is understood that the expectation for fans attendance by DDCA was at 10,000, with gates 16 and 17 opened, and entry to be done on the basis of Aadhaar card.
But with fans upwards of 15,000 coming from all parts of Delhi, as well as Noida, Ghaziabad and rest of the NCR region thronging the stadium and standing in queues from as early as 3am, DDCA calculations went awry and they had to open gate number 18 for spectator entry before action began at 9:30am, as Delhi won the toss and elected to bowl first against Railways.
The fans wishing to see Kohli in action were chanting names of him and IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru outside the venue, as well as in the Gautam Gambhir and Bishen Singh Bedi stands. With the work on food arrangements going on, RO water counters are already present in the stadium and are in working condition.
Sources also said the DDCA are increasing the presence of police personnel, aside from the previously made private security arrangements, especially after an eager fan ran in from North Stand to touch Kohli’s feet during the 12th over and was taken away, though the batting stalwart, stationed at second slip, asked for the intruder to be not hit harshly.
“We generally have 25-30 people for security in a Ranji Trophy game at Delhi. But with Virat coming in, we got 50 and now 100 security personnel in the stadium. We will get police people once they are done with their work around VIP movement in Rajghat,” added the sources.
IANS also saw that police personnel had been stationed near the boundary ropes of North and West stands, to ensure no intruder comes in after the previous incident. The sources have also said that they have never seen these many spectators in attendance for a domestic red-ball game in New Delhi after a Duleep Trophy clash in the 80s, where Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar were in action for North and West Zones respectively, highlighting the pull Kohli has in Indian cricket.
–IANS
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