Karnataka Ranji team forced to hire autos, Captain Vinay Kumar taken to football field

Karnataka lifting the Ranji Trophy in 2014

The defending champions of the Ranji Trophy, Karnataka were in for some hassle as they had to hire auto rickshaws to reach Barsapara Stadium, where they were playing against Assam on Sunday, 4th October, the fourth and final day of their first round match.

In an even more bizarre turn of events, captain R. Vinay Kumar and trainer Prashanth Pujar were taken to the Sarjusai stadium , the venue for the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) and home ground of NorthEast United FC.

The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) was supposed to send a bus to pick up the visiting team and brings them to the stadium, as they had done for the first three days. However, on the last day of the match, the bus did not arrive at the team hotel on time, which forced the players to find an alternative route to reach the grounds on time.

The final day’s play was scheduled to start 15 minutes early, at 8.30 AM. Karnataka had requested for the bus to be at the hotel by 6.45 AM. The team was waiting well before that at the hotel lobby.

Ramesh Rao, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Logistics Manager said, “We had asked for the bus to arrive as we wanted to reach early for warm-ups, since it didn’t arrive, we decided to take autos. We had no other option.”

The distance between the hotel and the stadium was around six kilometres. However, when the bus did not arrive, Karnataka decided to hire nine autos to reach the stadium. To make matters even worse, the auto drivers demanded more than the actual fare and they had no choice but to pay up.

More inconvenience was lined up for the skipper Kumar and the trainer Pujar as they were promptly driven to the football stadium in Guwahati. Once the auto driver realised his mistake, he drove them to the correct stadium.

The ACA officials apologised profusely to the Karnataka team. However, the Ranji Trophy champions made an oral complaint to the match referee and BCCI's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU).

Karnataka were playing Assam in the opening round of this season’s Ranji Trophy. The game which started on October 1, ended in a draw yesterday. Assam secured three points for their first innings lead while Karnataka got only one point.