No point in being the richest if you fail to deliver

BCCI.pic/AFP

The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning a massive renovation of at least five big stadiums in India at an estimated cost of over R500 crore ahead of the ODI World Cup in October-November. The richest cricket board in the world now has the cricket fan in mind - the lifeblood of the game - and intends to close the gap when it comes to providing basic facilities.

During the India-Australia Test series in February-March, fans vented ire over unclean toilets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The Wankhede in Mumbai had undergone renovation before the India-Australia ODIs last month after a fan complained of poor sanitary conditions at the stadium. There were also a couple of reports about women cricket spectators complaining about abysmal toilets as the WPL took off earlier this year.

In all, 12 venues have been shortlisted to host World Cup games, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Rajkot, Mumbai and Ahmedabad - the likely venue for the final. We must stress on the importance of a complete overhaul of conditions of toilets at these venues. This actually highlights the poor state of toilets at numerous sporting facilities in the country. This is especially true for women spectators and in the lower rungs, for women athletes, too.

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Every stadium, while boasting ‘world-class amenities' needs clean, functioning and safe toilets, the last being of utmost importance when it comes to women. It is specious going around claiming to be a multi-sports power, and the richest or whatever if something as basic as restrooms is unusable. It is a matter of great shame, too, and one can only feel for our athletes at the grassroots level as they have no access to hygienic facilities. While cricket was the springboard for this edit, every sports stadium has to address this problem.