Political protest could disrupt 3rd ODI between India & South Africa

SCA president Niranjan Shah is confident that the match will go ahead without any disruption

The Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) has been alerted about the possibility of the third ODI between India and South Africa being disrupted by a political protest staged by the followers of Hardik Patel, a young political leader hailing from the state of Gujarat, ESPNCricinfo reports.

The ongoing South Africa’s tour of India has already witnessed unruly scenes of crowd trouble as a section of the crowd resorted to throwing bottles onto the field of play during the 2^nd T20I at Cuttack with the hosts heading to a defeat. The SCA has already started taking preventive actions to ensure that similar scenes are not repeated.

Several leading newspapers, including The Indian Express, had reported that the 21-year-old had rallied his supporters to use the high-profile cricket match as a platform to voice their demands of quotas for the Patidari community. Apparently, his followers were planning to buy around 10000 tickets in order to make their presence felt during the day-night encounter scheduled for October 18.

Following that report, Rajkot Police had made it mandatory for the spectators to produce his/her ID proof in order to buy tickets.

“This is part of the security arrangement. Men from the Local Intelligence Branch (LIB) will be there at ticket selling window. They will scan ID proof of every ticket buyer. Therefore, we shall know who is seating where in the stadium. Besides, every nook and corner of the stadium will be under CCTV surveillance,” Rajkot (Rural) SP Gagandeep Gambhir told The Indian Express.

“In case of any trouble in any block, spectators sitting there will be booked. Besides trouble-makers, ticket-buyers who have passed on tickets to them, if any, will also be booked for mischief.”

Online tickets for the match have already been sold out while around 9000 tickets will be made available to the general public through ticket counters at the stadium premises starting October 12. In addition to the step taken by the police, Niranjan Shah, the president of the SCA added that no person will be allowed to buy more than two tickets and a digital copy of the ID proof submitted will be recorded and matched with seat numbers during the day of the match.

The former BCCI president is however wary of the fact that the tickets do not possess a ‘not transferable’ stipulation on them – meaning the political elements could still get hold of a meaningful number of them and carry ahead with their protest as planned. Shah is still confident though that the cricket action will not be affected.

"If by some way they still manage to form clusters of protestors, we will have top security arrangements - 2500 policemen - to maintain order," Shah said. "We are not going to stop them shouting slogans or revealing clothes with political messages, but we can ask the BCCI production to not give them any play during the broadcast."