Haves or have-nots? City cops tie selves into knots

City Police Commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji told mediapersons that the City police had decided to provide ‘poor children’ with an opportunity to watch the cricket matches.

He said: "Cricket is a popular game. IPL has become a rich man's game and poor can't afford to watch as tickets are priced very high. Hence, we decided to provide 'poor children' an opportunity. We are sponsoring 350 students, while a private event management company came forward to foot the bill for 150 students.”

The City police will in future sponsor children’s visit to all cricket matches played in the City, including ODIs, Tests and IPL, he said.

Contrary to Mirji’s claims to have sponsored the ‘poor kids’, those who were in queue at the Chinnaswamy stadium were from schools in posh localities and some of them even carried two mobile phones each. The majority of them were from various schools on St Mark's Road and other posh areas.

When Deccan Herald spoke to Elizabeth Robert of Stracey Memorial School on St Mark's Road, she said: “I don't know anything, I was asked by the principal to accompany the children to the match.” Sai Suraj, Manikanta and Bhavani from the same school were all praise for the school management for sending them to the IPL tie.

“I want the Bangalore team RCB to win. I am all excited to see Chris Gayle in action,” said Sai. When the mediapersons started interacting with the students from the affluent classes in the group, the cops whisked them away saying: “The match will start soon, hurry up.” The group of students entered the stadium through the Rs 270-entry gate.