Cricket Stadiums in India Must Take Care of Spectators

The day two of the second test match between India and South Africa which was called off due to rain on November 15, 2015, exposed how badly cricket stadiums are run in India and how the gullible spectators are taken for granted. The so called covered stands were leaking all over at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore and to make the matters worse the umbrellas were not allowed. The ‘international standard ground’ was covered in patches leaving out the out-field at rain god’s mercy.  The out-field was muddy and slippery. What happened to the modern methods of covering and soaking? Just tireless manual work does not yield results although in this case play would not have been possible as rain was continuous. There were no announcements on the poor public address system and the only screen placed on one corner of the ground had the line ‘the match delayed due to rain’.  As if no one knew about it.  What people look is out-come of periodical inspections made by umpires.

Patchy covers at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on November 15, 2015

The occasional voice that came up called upon the spectators to sing nursery rhyme “rain-rain go away”. The stadium in general appeared poorly maintained. Quite a few seats were either dirty or broken.  I do not understand why drinking-water or umbrellas were not allowed inside just because water bottle throwing incidents happened on a rare occasion in the past. Umbrellas are needed whether it is sunny or rainy day while the quality of drinking water provided within the stadium is always a suspect. 

Many spectators, women in particular had to leave their umbrellas, purses, back-packs, cameras outside for which the stadium security refused to take any responsibility. There was no token system to mark the personal belongings – thrown reckless in some corner at the entry points.  The authorities must know that people come from far flung areas, unaware of all kinds of restrictions. This stadium hosts many matches in a year and I am sure must be making a lot of money through ticket sales, advertisements, coaching sessions and so on. I hope, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which     is one of richest sporting organizations in the world, takes notice of the poor treatment meted out to the cricket loving spectators. If this is the case in Bangalore, situation must be worse elsewhere at other centres in India.