Visakhapatnam: It was a great time for some lucky cricket fans selected through a competition who got a chance to shake a leg with cricket players from IPL Pune and also have photo shoot with them in Vizag on Thursday.
IPL Pune team players Stephan Fleming, George Bailey, Irfan Pathan, Usman Khawaja and R Ashwin were present on the occasion. The absence of M.S. Dhoni who could not make it to the meet due to some preoccupied programme was conspicuous. The first question a fan asked was “Where is Dhoni?”.
A quiz contest was also conducted among the participants to test how much they knew about their favourite players. Interestingly, while some fans gave answers in a second, others who did not know the answer were seen googling it in their mobile phones. Five of them were given awards for giving right answers.
About two to three questions were asked about each player to the fans.
The questions were like name of Irfan Pathan’s wife, when R. Ashwin faced a ligament problem, which game Bailey play other than cricket, date of birth of Stephen Fleming etc.
The quiz session gave the fans a chance to know more about the players. The players were also amused with the answers given by the fans. At the end of the programme, the players wanted to dance with their fans. It was R Ashwin who took the lead first and danced to the tune of Bollywood number Lungi dance.
However, he wanted a Telugu number to dance. The fans also got a chance to take picture with the players.
IPL match in Visakhapatnam at cyclone Roanu’s mercy now
It seems to be that cyclone storm Roanu may spoil spirit the IPL-2016 match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab to be played at Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy ACA-VDCA stadium in Vizag on May 21.
Taken the cyclone condition in Vizag and warnings of the Met Department, ahead of what is scheduled to be the cricket action, it may take threatening proportions.
For the past two days, Vizag city has witnessed heavy rain in spells and it might be the same on Saturday as well.
The cyclone warning centre (CWC), Vizag, officials said that rains are expected on May 21 also due to the cyclonic storm Roanu. The game is scheduled to start at 4 pm on Saturday. The rain has interrupted the last match in Vizag between Rising Pune Supergiants and Delhi Daredevils on May 17 night and Pune won the match Duckworth-Lewis method.
“No problem when rain stops just six hours before the match, our ground men can clear the rain water from the stadium in just three hours with super sappers we can easily conduct the match” says President of Andhra Cricket Association (ACA), DVVS Somayajulu.
The ACA administrators claimed that heavy rains lashed in Vizag due to cyclone Helen. But we successfully conducted the ODI between India and West Indies on November 24, 2013 after the rain stopped just few hours before the match.
Vizag, a non-franchise city in Andhra Pradesh likely get six matches of IPL-2016 and successfully conducted five matches so far and now the final and sixth match in Vizag venue at cyclone’s mercy now.
