PUNE: At least 20 people, suffering from giddiness or dehydration, visited one of the many first-aid centres of the DPU multispeciality hospital inside the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium during the opening day of the second Test between India and New Zealand on Thursday.
A staff posted at one of the counters in the North Stand confirmed the same to this daily.
"About 20-25 people have come in so far, complaining of dehydration or giddiness," the staff told this daily. "We gave them ORS, the non-availability of water was the issue." After taking all DPU booths into consideration, the person in-charge of that particular counter said upwards of 100 may have sought treatment.
The fiasco started around 11.30 AM in the stadium situated on the outskirts of the city on Thursday. Hordes of fans didn't have access to drinking water and the queues kept growing and growing. Soon enough, several fans started raising slogans. "MCA hume paani do," they shouted. "MCA hai hai."
Some of the on-duty cops had to be involved to quell the increasingly loud fans. Ironically, spectators, who were promised free drinking on the public address system before start of play, were made to wait for an hour or so after lunch. "We waited two hours after lunch to get our hands on water that we had paid for," said one fan, who had come from Pimpri.
"I have come here multiple times before but it has never been this bad. The reason why I keep coming is for the love of the game and I don't think that will ever change."
This fan ended up paying `1200 for a few bottles of water but he saw the funny side in picking up a season ticket (a five-day pass) for `500. Another local said this may be the first and last time as this experience had left him 'with a 50-50 decision to make'.
A few hours after the situation was restored, MCA secretary Kamlesh Pisal, held an impromptu press conference where he 'apologised to the fans for the inconvenience caused'. "The problem arose because we had decided to give cold water to the fans considering the heat. However, as some of the kiosks ran out of it, we had to manually refill the container. That's what caused the issue. This problem is now fixed." Pisal also said MCA aren't responsible for the vendors who sold water.
To ensure the same problem doesn't happen during the weekend - when a much larger crowd is expected - they are bringing in bigger containers to store cold water apart from having a back-up supply in place.