Several injured in stampede at India vs Australia match ticket counter in Telangana

Several people were injured and at least four—two of them women—were hospitalized after a stampede broke out at the Gymkhana Grounds in Secunderabad. The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) had set up a ticket sale counter there for the upcoming India-Australia T-20 match scheduled to be held in the city on Sunday.

The HCA, headed by former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin, was blamed by the police and civic authorities for insufficient counters, inadequate information to the public and for even keeping the police uninformed, which led to the stampede-like situation.

Cricket enthusiasts also alleged that the tickets were being sold in black.

Fans clamoured for tickets at the sale counters, as an international cricket match would be held in Hyderabad after a gap of nearly three years. Thousands of fans began to throng the sale venue Thursday morning onwards, but the process was slow, which irked those waiting their turn in queue for hours. Amidst that, unexpected rainfall seemed to have aggravated the situation, leading to the stampede.

Television news footage showed a hapless woman being buried under a pile of men, in another instance a youth fell unconscious and had to be revived by the police, who had a hard time bringing order to the chaos. In the melee, some police personnel were also injured.

Alarmed by the visuals on news channels and adverse reports, Telangana sports minister Srinivas Goud convened a meeting with HCA officials, including Azharuddin.

“We did nothing wrong. A report will be submitted to the government. What happened was unfortunate,” Azharuddin said while stating that organizing a cricket match was a strenuous task.

While cricket enthusiasts faulted the HCA for the sloppy arrangements, Vishwa Hindu Parishad accused Azharuddin and the HCA of allowing black-marketing of the tickets.

“The Uppal stadium’s capacity is 55,000 seats, but not even 2000 tickets were allotted for the common public through counter sale. This is the reason for the pandemonium, stampede at the Gymkhana Grounds today. Azharuddin and other HCA functionaries should be booked in a criminal case and a proper probe should be carried out to find the involvement,” said Ravinuthala Sasidhar, joint secretary of VHP Telangana, demanding Azharuddin’s removal from HCA.