23 March,2009 09:06 AM IST | | Harit N Joshi
Till yesterday, the mood at the Dr D Y Patil Sports Stadium in Nerul was upbeat. After all, they were gearing up to stage the opening ceremony and final of the Indian Premier League's (IPL) second season.
But after yesterday's development where the BCCI decided to shift the IPL out of India over security concerns as the league was coinciding with the General Elections, the D Y Patil Stadium seemed to be the biggest loser.
"What are you saying?" Avinash Salvi, DY Patil's sports secretary asked when he heard the news from MiD DAY.
"Some members of the Rajasthan Royals are inspecting the ground and other facilities with me at this moment," he said.
Big loss
"The work is in full swing. We have spent crores of rupees to get the best security in place for the IPL," Salvi rued.
"We have installed high-quality CCTV cameras at every corner of the stadium which take pictures of every spectator coming in.
"A giant screen, which will be the biggest in India, is already being imported from Australia and will be installed next month. It is really sad to see no IPL happening in India," he added.
He also said that all the cost was borne by the DY Patil group.
"We have not taken any assistance from IPL or BCCI. Vijay Patil has put his heart into it. He went out of his way to do all this.
"We wanted to rock everyone. But now everything has fallen apart," he said dejectedly.
The mood wasn't very different at the Cricket Club of India, which was also supposed to host IPL matches at the Brabourne Stadium.
"We were happy that cricket was finally coming to CCI after resolving the clubhouse issue with our members.
We were about to start our process for security and other arrangements. Now, all I can say is that we are unlucky," said CEO Kamaljit 'Bonny' Rajpal.
Brabourne Stadium had also lost out on an opportunity to host the Platinum Jubilee of Indian Test cricket after the venue of the second India-England Test was shifted to Chennai following last November's terror attacks in the city.
