Odisha’s Barabati stadium readies for Ind-SA T20

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Oct 1:

The officials of the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) are leaving no stones unturned to host the second T20 between India and South Africa to be played here at the Barabati Stadium on Oct 5.

The stadium in the Millennium City will be hosting its first international T20 match here.

Earlier in the day, cricket fans made a beeline to the three counters dedicated for ticket sales for general public. Almost 11, 000 tickets have been earmarked for counter sale which would continue till this Saturday. The counters opened at 9 am and will remain open till 5 pm.

The two-day ticket sales of 13,424 tickets to affiliate bodies of OCA at its conference hall in the stadium ended here yesterday.  Prior to that, the online sale of tickets ended on Tuesday.

Notably, the unsold tickets from online and affiliate bodies would be passed on to counters, officials of OCA said.

The top police personnel inspected the stadium for security arrangements yesterday. Twin City Commissioner Dr RP Sharma and Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora held talks with OCA officials regarding security arrangements.

As many as 65 platoons of police personnel would be spread out in the stadium during the match on Monday, source said.

“We have directed all, including OCA, to strictly control crowd. We have instructed the police personnel and the private security guards of OCA who will be on duty on Monday to not allow visitors other than ticket and complimentary pass holders. We have noticed in the past that unauthorised persons had sneaked into the stadium causing overcrowding. We have asked them to implement access control,” Sharma said.

On Saturday evening, the teams would arrive at the state capital and will have practice session at the stadium the following day. On Oct 5, the match would start from 7 pm onwards.