KSCA displays smart management skills during the India v South Africa 2nd Test

KSCA displays smart management skills during the India v South Africa 2nd Test: 5^th October 2015 was a sad day for Indian cricket and its ‘fans’. An ugly incident took place during the 2^nd T20I between India and South Africa in the Barabati Stadium at Cuttack. Firstly, India were humbled to a low score of 92 runs in 17 overs and when South Africa came to chase and were looking to take the match away, these ‘fans’ seated in few areas vented their fury by throwing water bottles from the stands. This resulted in the match being disrupted at least three times and things progressively got worse. After a lot of disruptions, the match was resumed and South Africa won the game by 6 wickets.

Harsha Bhogle tweeted, “Disgraceful scenes in Cuttack. Nobody has a right to throw bottles onto the ground. Crowd performance worse than that of the players.” Former Indian cricketer and presently a cricket commentator Sunil Gavaskar rightly responded to this incident and said, “If you don’t throw valuables when India wins a match, you have no right to throw rubbish when India loses.”

After this, the BCCI decided to adopt stricter measures and those were used by the KSCA during the second Test match between India and South Africa at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. What the KSCA very smartly and tactfully did is, they did not allow water bottles to be brought inside the stadium and no water bottles were sold inside either. Instead they arranged for free mineral water counters served in disposable glasses. The Karnataka State Cricket Association seems to believe in ‘prevention is better than cure’ and thus adopted the idea.

To hike their reputation further, there were counters with first aid boxes in the stands. KSCA has always been a dynamic cricket association with interest to take the game ahead and give a great experience to the spectators, at the end of day 1 when the people who had turned out in good numbers walked back they had a smile on their face, not just for the way the home team played on the day but also for the managerial efforts that were put together at the venue.