In Rajkot, India vs SA turns into BJP vs Hardik

RAJKOT: The Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) Stadium in Khandheri, the venue for the third One-day International between India and South Africa, has become a political platform for different outfits to flex their muscle.
After Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) chief Hardik Patel's threat to disrupt Sunday's match, it has now been alleged that members of the BJP have procured close to 20,000 tickets to negate Patel's imminent threat.The stadium has an official seating capacity of 28,000. The BJP members, according to sources, will enter the stadium wearing T-shirts that will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image imprinted on them.
Though Saurashtra Cricket Association secretary Niranjan Shah dismissed all such talk as "mere speculation", he failed to give an exact figure of how many tickets were sold or made available to the public.
"Like in the past we have followed all the procedures. The only difference this time is that we have asked ticket buyers to furnish identity cards," Shah, a veteran cricket administrator, said. There was trouble reported on Friday morning when an angry mob ransacked the barricades and burnt banners after they found all ticket windows shut at Race Course Ground. This, after sources at the SCA said that they had sold close to 4,500 tickets till Thursday evening.
Hardik, making his intention clear, accused the BJP of playing politics over a cricket match. He sent a WhatsApp message from his personal number, asking SCA to "clarify on why they declared that all tickets are sold in spite of the fact that many tickets yet remain unsold."
He added: "PAAS will block the way of both the teams (of India and South Africa) to the stadium (on the match day) and we will also cordon the entire stadium."
Hardik, who is agitating to get reservation for Patel community under Other backward Class (OBC) quota, said, "The (BJP) government was saying till now that the match should not be turned into an agitation venue, but now this government is itself playing politics over the match," he said.
Unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the match day. In all, 2,100 policemen will be positioned at the SCA Stadium, which is double the numbers usually deployed in ODI security.
For the moment, all eyes here are on the political games being played out, with the arrival of the teams a day earlier going almost unnoticed. The five-match series is tied 1-1 after India won the second game.
(With inputs from Vijaysinh Parmar & Kapil Dave)