Barabati fiasco: OCA to take measures to avoid repeat

Bhubaneswar: On the basis of the report submitted by the principal secretary of Home department to the state government on the bottle throwing incident in Barabati stadium in Cuttack on October 5, the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) has been asked to take corrective measures to ensure that such incidents don't recur in future.

A meeting, presided over by police commissioner RP Sharma and attended by Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora and OCA office-bearers, discussed possible measures here on Tuesday afternoon.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, police commissioner RP Sharma said the meeting discussed the corrective measures to be taken by the OCA so that there would be no repetition of any such incident in the stadium in future.

“The meeting decided that henceforth no spectator would be allowed to carry water bottle or water pouch to the stadium. As an alternative measure, OCA would make arrangements for drinking water in each gallery,” he added.

OCA secretary Asirbad Behera, who was present at the meeting, said it has been decided that the height of the barbed wire around the stadium ground would be raised so that the spectators cannot throw any articles to the playground.

“Apart from this, we will mark each seat inside the stadium with numbers while the seat number will be mentioned in the ticket. To watch the activities of the crowd, we will install more CCTV cameras inside and outside the stadium,” Behera said.

Stating that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will accord Test venue status to Barabati stadium very soon, he said OCA will take all steps discussed in the meeting.

He further said OCA will complete all work on the stadium two months before the allotment of a match by the BCCI.

It may be recalled that expressing dissatisfaction over the fiasco at the Barabati stadium following the unruly behaviour of the crowd throwing plastic water bottles to the playground and disrupting the T20 match between India and South Africa on October 5 night, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had asked the principal secretary, Home to probe the unsavoury incident and submit a report within a month.