HYDERABAD: The eight persons who sustained injuries in the stampede outside the Gymkhana ground on Thursday in the rush for tickets and were hospitalised, had something to cheer up on Saturday, even of the T20 match between will be able to watch the match after all.
In a gesture that reeked of self-confession, the state sports ministry ensured that each of the eight injured persons would receive two tickets for the match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Not just that, they would be escorted to the match venue in a special bus from the office of sports minister V. Srinivas Goud.
But the horror of what happened that day, when more than 30,000 fans were forced to scramble for about 3,000 tickets appeared to have of them turning down the offer.
Begumpet inspector P. Srinivas Rao told Deccan Chronicle, “The sports ministry has decided to offer two special seats each to all the eight injured people for the match. The sports minister will reach Ravindra Bharathi at 4 pm to oversee the arrangements. A special bus will take them to Uppal stadium from Ravindra Bharathi.”
Sai Kishore, one of the injured persons said, “I received a call from the Begumpet police station saying that they were arranging two tickets for me to watch the match at the stadium. They have asked us to reach the police station at 3 pm from where they will take us to the stadium”.
Ranjeetha, another injured person, also got a similar call. Her daughter Madhavi said, “We received a call from the police for the tickets. But we refused to go as we are still recovering from the shock. We are not keen about the match and only thankful that my mother is alive and safe.”
Sujatha from Kukatpally also got a similar call but she was not sure about going ahead with the plans as it was an unexpected offer made to them. She said, “We are feeling good although we still have a chance to go and watch the match at the stadium after whatever happened that day. We are still not sure about the plan, but it would be a good thing for sure”.
At the same time, the injured persons asserted that precautions should be taken to avert such incidents in the future.
