Gujarat Cricket Association leaves players stranded at the CCI for over 10 hours

The Gujarat team was in Mumbai to face the Rest of India team in the Irani Cup in their capacity as Ranji Trophy 2016-17 champions. Parthiv Patel & Co. had put up a spectacular show in the domestic season to beat defending champs Mumbai and win their first ever title. They were in command of the Irani Cup match for the most part as well until Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha played sensational knocks to come from behind and win the game for RoI.

Rest of India needed just 113 runs to win the Irani Cup on the last day and Saha who scored his maiden first-class double ton along with skipper Pujara who registered his 38th FC hundred needed just 90 minutes on the last morning to wrap the game up. The presentation ceremony following the match was all done by 11:30 am but the Gujarat team didn’t leave the Cricket Club of India (CCI). Not because they loved to hang around there but because they had nowhere to go.

The Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) checked out the team out of the hotel on the night of 23rd January as they were to fly back home on January 24, the last day of the match at around 10 pm. That they did to cut costs on the total bill they had to pay to the 5* hotel in the city.

This is the same state association that aspires to build the largest cricket stadium in India with a capacity to accommodate 1,10,00 people which is estimated to cost them 700 crore. Such behaviour with the team that recently created history for them and won them the glory they had never managed to achieve to this point is unexpected and unacceptable.

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The players who toil hard on the field day in day out are treated in a manner that would certainly demotivate them as the association opts to cut out costs rather than hand them bonuses for winning the Ranji championship.