Ranjan Madugalle, former Sri Lankan cricketer, is the ICC match referee for the India Vs New Zealand Test match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.
In fact, this Sri Lankan ICC match referee's critical report on the “appalling conditions at Lal Bahadur Stadium (venue of the one-dayer between the above two teams then), saw a ban being imposed on Hyderabad from hosting any international match for almost three years
So, the panic among HCA officials on Friday, the first day of the first-ever Test between the same teams at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, here was understandable.
For, according to HCA sources, Madagulle made his “disappointment” explicitly clear to the administrators for not ensuring that the giant, manual scoreboard was in place and also at the fact that the LED giant screen was not operational.
Confused lot
These glaring discrepancies also left the fans fuming for they were not sure what the scores were. HCA president Arshad Ayub had to do lot of explanation, the sources said. Even the BCCI officials swung into action giving telephonic instructions.
Further, a non-functional sight-screen also created problems for the players.
BCCI vice-president N. Shivlal Yadav stepped in to impress upon the ICC official about the ‘first day blues' even while assuring that everything would be ready by tomorrow.
Fans face the music
For the fans, it was more or less a forgetful day. First, the complimentary ticket-holders were held back at the gates because the new turnstile system did not have the relevant data, barring their entry. HCA joint secretary S. Venkateshwaran rushed to the gates, spoke to the company's bosses in Manipal and saw to that this issue was resolved after 40 minutes.
Mobile phone users had mixed fortunes with some managing to sneak into the stands with their phones while a few others were not so lucky. But many questioned as to how could the security measures be so stringent in this era when mobiles were a must have.
And like always, the fans had to pay a heavy price. A 300 ml glass of water cost Rs. 10, a soft drink bottle Rs. 40 each and a vegetable biryani pack Rs. 100. Worse still, all this was in ugly surroundings.
Damp squib
Even the felicitation function for the Hyderabadis who played for India in Tests was a damp squib with only M.V. Narasimha Rao, Govindraj and Jayanthilal making it today.
Officially, the crowd attendance today was 13,766. It was informed that all daily and season tickets will be sold from tomorrow at new eSeva centres at Habsiguda, Ramanthapur and Snehapuri Centre (Nacharam).
