Rajkot kids plead Hardik Patel not to disrupt third India South Africa ODI

Fifty girls and boys make a statement as they hope to keep politics away from cricket

Fifty boys and girls, all dressed in white cricket flannels, made an emotional statement as they stood with folded hands on Monday at the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) stadium. They were appealing to Hardik Patel’s Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) not to use this weekend’s India-South Africa ODI in Rajkot as a platform for his ongoing reservation agitation.

This desperate measure had to be taken after the SCA officials, past and present Ranji players and influential cricket fans had no success in persuading PAAS to keep politics out of the game. The SCA insists that the ‘prayer for peace’ idea was floated by the young cricketers themselves. All that the cricket officials had to do was just ask them to stand in neat rows, called photographers and shared the frames with the media.

Veteran BCCI administrator and SCA secretary Niranjan Shah termed it as an "emotional request" to the politician. The India versus South Africa series has already seen crowd disturbance during the second Twenty20 in Cuttack on October 5 and the SCA does not want a re-run of that.

“Badon ka nahin maane, bachchon ka toh sun lo (You didn’t heed the request of the elders, at least listen to the children). We are requesting them not to bring politics to the cricket field,” Shah told the Indian Express.

Hardik Patel, former junior cricketer-turned-politician 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.

After Patel announced his plans, the SCA said tickets would be sold to fans only with identity cards. Shah said he was banking on police help to host a trouble-free match.

In Ahmedabad, PAAS convenor Hardik Patel said: “We shall use the match to make the world aware about our agitation. However, we shall not disturb the match in any manner.”

Niranjan Shan said he is counting on the police to ensure a peaceful match. “The consequences of a protest will be very bad. SCA might be banned from hosting any international game in the future,” he said. He hopes that the earnest plea of the children will keep trouble away.