SPORTS

Delhi will have new cricket stadium by October
M.S. Unnikrishnan

New Delhi, March 28
The cricket stadium at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground has been the butt of ridicule for time immemorial. Players and fans have nothing complimentary, but only a litany of complaints, to make against the condition of the stadium, and the facilities on offer.

The Australian cricket team once described the Ferozeshah Kotla ground as the “worst Test venue in the world”. The Aussies made this famous comment when pollution was at its worst in Delhi, with vehicle fumes, smog and dust adding to clog the air.

Delhi is a much cleaner city now, thanks to the introduction of the CNG fuel, but the cricketers still have nothing positive to say about the Ferozeshah Kotla ground.

However, things will change for the better very soon. The Ferozeshah Kotla ground is undergoing an unbelievable make-over, and come October, the Delhi and District Cricket Association hopes to put in place a most modern stadium at the present venue.

Though construction of the new stadium began several months ago, the DDCA could not find an ‘auspicious’ date to conduct the formal foundation-stone laying ceremony. That task was accomplished by Union Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also the president of the DDCA, at a brief ceremony on Sunday. The entire DDCA office-bearers, including senior vice-president C K Khanna, vice-president Suresh K Chopra, Narender K Batra, secretary S P Bansal, treasurer Ram Babu Gupta, members of the sports committee and executive committee, were also present.

The stadium, designed by architects Kothari and Associates, is expected to cost between Rs 35 to 38 crore.

The stadium will be built in three phases. The first phase will be completed in April while the last phase is expected to be over by October. The present plan is to get the stadium ready before the tour of the Australian and South African teams in the coming winter.

In the first phase, the ‘B’ Block on the North-West side of the stadium will be raised. This will be the ‘elitist’ part of the stadium as the three-storey block here will consist of the players’ pavilion, players’ dressing rooms, corporate boxes, VIP stands, two restaurants, a club house and a large dining hall.

The players’ pavilion and dressing rooms will be located in the first tier while the second tier will house the corporate boxes. The third tier will have VIP stands with a capacity of over 7,000 seats. The corporate boxes will be around 35 to 38 in number, all air-conditioned, which will be leased out for a ten-year period to major companies, both Indian and multi-national.

The ‘A’ block will come up on the eastern side of the stadium—the area where the general stands and practice pitches were located in the old stadium. A three-tier block will come up here too with a capacity of around 28,000 seats for general public. The salient feature of this block will be that seats will be provided at every block, and toilet and panty facilities will also be added—a far cry from the much-maligned Kotla ground of yore. .

The ‘C’ block at the Delhi Gate end, touching the Ambedkar Stadium, too will have corporate boxes, but these boxes will be leased out only during match days. The present club house and pavilion on the southern side will be left unaltered and only cosmetic changes will be carried out. This structure has to conform to the Archaeological Survey of India’s specifications to gell with the adjacent Ferozeshah Kotla fort and surroundings.

Meadows and hills have also been planned to give the stadium a leisurely ambience where temporary chairs would be put on match days. When completed, the stadium will have a total capacity of around 60,000, which will be more than double the capacity of the existing stadium.

But how has the perennially cash-strapped DDCA managed to embark on this ambitious project, and where has the funds come from?

A top brass of the association said the DDCA pitched in with around Rs 1.5 crore of its own fund, the Board of Control for Cricket in India contributed Rs 2 crore, and a substantial amount would be raised through the sale of corporate boxes, reportedly at Rs 35 lakh per box. The rest of the funds would be availed of from financial institutions.

The new stadium will have a 75-yard boundary to fulfil international specifications, and the wickets will be re-oriented—from the present North-South to East-West direction. The media box located in the old club house will then be parallel to the wicket, and not behind it.

But one of the most obvious drawbacks of the new stadium is the lack of parking space. The old parking lot of the DDCA has been converted into a modern park by the government, and there is no empty land in the vicinity of the stadium to be used as a parking lot.

But considering the volume of vehicles to be accommodated at the large capacity stadium, the present plan is to “park and ride”, say at the Ram Lila Ground near Delhi Gate. This arrangement, however, may cause traffic blockade during match days, and the DDCA has not been able to work this knotty problem out, yet.

“But we are working to it, and hope to solve the parking problem with the completion of the stadium”, opined senior vice-president C K Khanna.

Equipment Project of India Ltd is executing the construction work, and Mr Arun Jaitley, Mr C K Khanna and Mr Suresh K Chopra were hopeful that the new stadium with flood-lighting facilities will change the face of cricket in the Capital.

SAIL sail into cricket quarter-final
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 28
Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) defeated Mohan Meakins by 27 runs and entered the quarter-final of the 14th SAIL Trophy Cricket Tournament at the Mohan Meakins ground.

Scores: SAIL: 223 for 8 in 40 overs (Gursharan Singh 87, Jalaj Saxena 37, Oniel Wilson 32, Bhaskar Pillai 21, Vikas Vij 2 for 39, Aditya Jain 5 for 34, Vishal Sharma 1 for 19).

Mohan Meakins: 196 all out in 38.5 overs (Sunny Singh 46, Abhishek 44, Aditya Jain 23, Subhag Mohanty 4 for 31, Shitor Mishra 2 for 24, Gursharan Singh 3 for 24).

Manish Kumar deadly

Deadly bowling by Manish Kumar (4 for 23) helped R P Academy defeat Poorvi Delhi Academy by one wicket in a league match of the first R C Sharma Memorial Under-17 Cricket Tournament at the Vikaspuri school ground. Manish

Kumar received the man of the match trophy.

Scores: Poorvi Delhi: 147 all out in 34.3 overs (Devender Kumar 36, Chetan Bisht 34, Manish Kumar 4 for 23, Sanjay Vadhwa 2 for 23, Marudhar Singh 2 for 19).

R P Academy: 150 for 9 in 35.5 overs (Puneet Mehra 45, Nitin Saini 41, Tauseef Ahmad 3 for 30, Ramit Gill 3 for 33).

Cricket trials

The K N Colts Cricket Club will hold trials to select players to play in junior tournaments in Bangalore. The trials will be held at the Maitrey College ground from April 1 to 3 from 3 pm to 6 pm. Entries close with Anand Mishra at 9811467401 or Dinesh Rai at 9811474218.

Joshi Memorial Inter-School Hockey from April 9
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 28
The first D P Joshi Memorial Inter-School Hockey Tournament for Under-19 year-old players will be held at the Shivaji Stadium from April 9 to 11.

Modern School, Barakhamba Road will take on DAV School, Rohini, in the opening match. The draw was conducted by former Olympian Ashok Kumar.

Other teams in the fray are Union Academy, Bal Bharati (Pitampura), S S Mota Singh Model (Paschim Vihar), Guru Harkrishan Public School, Shahdara, S S Mota Singh, Janakpuri and Ganga School.

Delhi crush Haryana in baseball

Delhi crushed Haryana 10-0 and Goa tamed Himachal Pradesh 11-1 to enter the women’s semi-finals of the 18th Senior National Baseball Championship at the Bharat Nagar ground.

In the men’s section, Goa defeated Pondicherry 15-0, Haryana beat Kerala 10-4, Delhi beat Kerala 11-0, Madhya Pradesh defeated Uttar Pradesh 10-0 and Punjab crushed Manipur 7-1, Orissa trounced Gujarat 11-0 and Chattisgarh beat Maharashtra 3-1.