Credit: Special arrangement.
Pune: In another instance of sheer apathy towards the spectators, over 20,000 of them were literally left high and dry on the opening day of the second Test between India and New Zealand here at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium on Thursday.
It is estimated - a staff member of the DPU Super Speciality Hospital revealed - that close to 150 people had checked in across seven first-aid centres at the venue complaining of dizziness due to dehydration by tea time. The problem: there was no water at the venue for close to four hours after the start of the Test.
As temperatures went beyond 31* Celsius on Thursday, arid heat at that, it became obvious that the roofing at the stadium was only going to cater to 1/3rd of the humanity at the ground. All others were forced to wrap their heads with any piece of clothing they could get their hands on.
Things, however, took a turn for the worse during the lunch break when spectators lined up outside water kiosks, which were promised to be free for every ticket-holder, only to be told there was no water. Naturally, the panic-stricken crowd pushed back.
“We transferred money (Rs 150 per bottle) to them, and they shut the station down because they had no bottles left,” said a resident of the neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad. “Forget about free water, we didn’t even get the water we paid for. Eventually, they had some bottles and we paid close to Rs 1200 for six bottles of water (between three friends). A bottle of soft drink was Rs 400 so we decided against eating here.
MCA Secretary Kamlesh Pisal was at a loss to explain the chaos and expressed his regret.
“We wanted to provide everyone with free cold water from the taps. The problem is that those cold kegs (approximately 15 stations across the venue) don’t have a lot of capacity, and by the time we replenished them, there was already chaos.”