Punchline Pune.
Empty seats, no shade make it tough for fans
There are a lot of things that work against Pune's Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium as a Test venue, with only a few thousand spectators including a bunch of school kids turning up to watch the action in the city's maiden Test. The problem starts with the location of the stadium itself. It is situated in the middle of nowhere, by the Mumbai-Pune expressway, and is easily around an hour's drive from the city. Even if you manage the travel and get there, the stadium is built in such a way that there is no shade for fans, except in one minute part of the 37,000-capacity stadium, which, of course, has the most expensive tickets starting at Rs 2,000. The remaining 75 per cent of the stadium is completely open, and with the heat nearing its peak in the city, not many fans braved to watch the action under the sun. From those who did, some sat with wet towels around their neck. People used almost anything to cover their heads, from big hats to charts to even flags. "It's alright to watch an IPL match here at 8pm, but not Test cricket," Vinod Kumar, who chose to bunk office and watch the match, said. "The heat is unbearable, and there is no shade whatsoever to give us some relief. I paid Rs1,000 to come and watch today, but it is not worth it at all," he added.
When past meets present: Shirke shows around Rai
It was a moment to behold. The sacked secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Ajay Shirke, who was also the president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA), gave an introductory trip of the stadium to the current chairman of BCCI's Committee of Administrators (COA) Vinod Rai. The past-meeting-present scenario took place about half an hour before the start of play, when Shirke was briefing Rai about the facilities at the stadium along with current MCA president Abhay Apte. The entourage, which also had BCCI CEO Rahul Johri for company, took a round of the entire stadium with Shirke leading the way in giving descriptions to Rai. The Supreme Court had appointed a four-member COA panel headed by Rai to run the BCCI after sacking its president Anurag Thakur and secretary Shirke. Talk of awkward moments in life.
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