It is not just the Pakistan cricketers who were floored by the amazing efforts put up by the ground staff of Hyderabad Cricket Association in ensuring the best of playing conditions for the three World Cup and the two warm-up games ended at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday night.
All the team members of The Netherlands, New Zealand and Sri Lanka were all praise for the way the lush green playing area welcomed them. Well, there is reason, especially, for the Pakistanis to be on cloud nine, having won the two World Cup games they played here.
That one of the four centurions in the Pakistan-Sri Lanka match, wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan came to chief curator Y.L. Chandrasekhar to give him a feel of the ‘man of the match’ award, the joy of the entire groundstaff was understandable.
“As you told me, I have scored a century and feel I should take this trophy again from you,” Rizwan told Chandrasekhar.
And, when Pakistan captain Babar Azam walked across to hand over the team jersey to Chandrasekhar, it was an acknowledgement of his entire team’s effort for sure.
Soon, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali walked across to take a picture with the entire groundstaff and appreciated them. “They were all very happy and we are glad that my whole team has put their heart into the World Cup preparations. We wanted the venue to be one of the best ever for this World Cup and we feel we have ensured that,” said a visibly delighted Chandrasekhar.
It is not just the groundstaff, even Dawood, who normally takes care of the needs of the visiting teams in the dressing room, was presented a t-shirt and a cap by Babar Azam.
“The entire team was very happy with the hospitality, especially the facilities inside the dressing room and the non-vegetarian food served to them,” said Dawulu.
Well, the beaming faces of the top officials of the HCA, K. Durga Prasad, IPS (retd) and who was the soul behind all the efforts in hosting the World Cup matches backed by complete support by all government wings including Police, GHMC, Waterworks, Electricity said it all – we have done it!
