With much awaited Road Safety World Series Cricket Tournament approaching nearer, preparations for the same gaining momentum. In this sequence, a team of senior officials and experts on Thursday visited Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium, Nava Raipur Atal Nagar, the venue for the prestigious tournament being held from March 2 to 21, and took stock of the ongoing preparations. Even as the main objective of the tournament is to send message of road safety, it is expected to attract huge spectators keeping in mind the presence of legend cricketers in the form of Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar, West Indian great Brian Lara, former Australia captain and the most successful cricketers of his country Ricky Ponting, highest wicket taker Mutthaiah Muraliharan, world’s best fielder at one time the South African Jonty Rhodes etc. As many as five teams such as India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies and Australia are participating in the tournament and all the veteran players will be the part of their respective teams. The players would start coming from February 24-25.
Transport Commissioner Kamalpreet Singh, Inspector General of Police Dipanshu Kaabra, IG Intelligence Dr Anand Chhabra, Collector Dr S Bharathi Dasan, Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Yadav, Chief Executive Officer of District Panchayat Dr Gaurav Kumar Singh, Director of Sports Shweta Sinha and officials of Professional Management Group from Mumbai visited the stadium and took stock of the preparations.
Mumbai team said that the tournament will be launched on the evening of March 2. For this, online and offline tickets will be sold for Box, Platinum, Gold and Silver. Arrangements have been made for players and umpires to stay at Mayfair Hotel and Lake Resort in Nava Raipur. It is to be mentioned, Raipur District Collector has declared these hostels as ‘Bio Bubble Zone’ for other outsiders from 22 February to 22 March. Citizens visiting here will be completely banned.
Top officials of the state government and district administration observed the arrangements outside the stadium and inside the stadium. They inspected players’ dressing rooms, VIP lounge, media room and audience entry and exit, their seating arrangement, entrance system, parking. They also discussed important topics including the safety of players, smooth traffic arrangements, cleanliness, food zones, emergency medical, fire brigade, parking, uninterrupted power operation.
