Courtesy IPL, Eden gets a 'blind' gallery

KOLKATA: Pay Rs 9,000 for a seat and then run after seats reserved for others to watch an IPL match. It can't get bizarre than this.
It was a near-capacity turnout for IPL-6 season opener between Team Kolkata and Team Delhi. And when the crowd loved every bit of the entertainment on offer-Sunil Narine's guile with the cherry, Gautam Gambhir's return to form with the willow and Shah Rukh Khan's histrionics - Rahil Sekhawat, Aquib Irfan and a few others scurried for a seat at the BC Roy Club House.No, they didn't gate-crash. They paid a hefty price for tickets, yet the management could not provide them with a proper seat from where they could cheer their cricketing heroes.
"How can you enjoy a match if you have to change your seat seven times within the first hour of the match. We had to sit through the rest of the match without being able to watch most of the action!" a miffed Sekhawat told TOI after Wednesday's match. He was on seat 0386 that offered a vantage view of SRK but none of the 22 yard strip where all the action took place.
The friends were among two dozen spectators who had tickets to premium seats in the lower tier of the Club House at the Eden Gardens. But the seats had the view blocked-either completely or partially-by an extended sight screen.
The seats-numbered 0030-0036 in the first row; 0381-0388 in the second row; and 0407-0414 in the third row-ought to have been blocked off like the 200-odd seats located right behind the sight screen. But these seats, located behind the left top corner of the sight screen when viewed from the stand, were sold for Rs 9,000 each.
Among those who had landed up in the 'blind' gallery were the Bhartiyas. The family comprising Neel Bhartiya, wife Jyoti and daughters Swati and Shruti had bought the tickets to watch the defending champions take on Jayawardene & Co on the home turf. "We were really excited about the prospect of enjoying the match together. But when we landed at the stadium, we were aghast to find the seats behind the sight screen. Not only the green, even the giant screen was not visible from the seats," fumed Neel.
Though they pointed out the problem to the cops, the latter refused to entertain the complaint and insisted they had to sit on the seats allotted to them. "We tried to get in touch with a franchise official but failed. I felt helpless and frustrated. Ultimately, after the match commenced, we split up to move to seats that were vacant. We had to shift a couple of times when those who had been assigned the particular seats turned up. We were lucky that some spectators did not turn up in an otherwise packed stadium," said Jyoti.
Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) treasurer Biswarup De acknowledged the problem but pleaded helplessness as it was a Red Chillies event. "If it was a CAB event, we would not have allotted the seats as the match cannot be viewed from there. I will request officials to block the seats," he said.
Together, the 23 seats would have garnered Rs 2.07 lakh, a petty amount considering the overall ticket receipts pegged around Rs 4-5 crore. Yet, Jeet Banerjee, owner of Gameplan Sports Pvt Ltd and a key partner of Team Kolkata, not only failed to acknowledge that the two dozen-odd seats should not have been allotted, he even refused to commit that they would be blocked in ensuing matches.
"It does not matter if 20 odd people were inconvenienced when thousands have enjoyed the match. They could sit anywhere else. There were empty seats in the last row to accommodate those who could not watch the match from their seats. No one forced a blindfold on the spectators in question. They could have walked out. Instead, they chose to sit through the match. People go to Eden Gardens to watch Shah Rukh Khan and they had their fill," he said.
Incidentally, the sight screen's size at Eden Gardens has been a cause of debate in the past with Sachin Tendulkar complaining about the low height. The sight screen is critical for the batsman who wants an unimpeded view of the ball right from the time the bowler delivers it.
While the stand above the sight screen offers the best view of the action on field, and hence, has the most premium tickets, batsmen-particularly those of short height facing tall bowlers-are extremely fussy about sight screens as spectators moving in the stand behind the bowler can disturb their concentration. At the Eden, the height of the sight screen was raised from 16 ft to 18 ft and then to 22 ft to accommodate the maestro. The International Cricket Council has, subsequently, standardized the height at 25 ft.
Did Gambhir request for the height to be increased to face Ashish Nehra (6 feet 3 inches) and Andre Russell (6 feet 1inch), both of whom delivered the ball from a height of 8 feet? Were the 23 seats compromised because Aussie match refree David Boon acceded to the request? Team Kolkata though, insisted that was not the case.