Fans slam BCCI as pictures of dirty seats at Hyderabad's RGI Stadium go viral ahead of World Cup

Cricket fans are livid after photographs of dirty seats inside the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad have went viral. Cricket writer C Venkatesh shared pictures from inside the stadium and claimed that the authorities had done “only some window dressing” and that spectators’ comfort was still not taken care of completely.

“Nothing much has changed in Uppal stadium. Only some window dressing and spectator comfort still not taken care of in full,” Venkatesh said on X (formerly Twitter) while sharing pictures from inside the stadium. The post went viral in no time and garnered quite the traction on social media. Venkatesh’s post had more than 3,000 likes and numerous reposts at the time of writing this story.

The stadium on Tuesday hosted the warm-up match between Pakistan and Australia, when the fans complained about poor condition of the seats. Australia clinched victory against Pakistan by 14 runs in the match, with David Warner and Glenn Maxwell being the star performers from the Australian side.

Cricket fans shared their disappointment with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the world’s richest cricket body, for not investing much in venue upkeep. An X user said that nothing will change unless people either protest or boycott the matches by not seeing them effectively lowering the ad revenue.  

“Nothing is going to happen unless people protest or boycott by ‘not’ seeing matches effectively lowering the ads revenue. And yes, people need to stop making cricketers gods,” the person said.  

Another X user suggested that the BCCI should earmark 10 per cent of their revenues towards stadium upkeep and focus on providing good facilities for spectators like clean toilet, seating arrangement, etc. “BCCI should set aside 10 per cent of their revenues on stadium upkeep/provide good facilities for spectators like clean toilet, seating arrangement etc. High time, the stadiums have the facilities and look and feel of day for example like baseball grounds in US,” the user said.  

“Pathetic! This was expected though as they just replaced ground floor chairs…. Stating lack of time even though they had enough time,” another user noted.  

With the seats smeared with pigeon droppings, fans said they are getting a raw deal from the authorities ahead of the prestigious tournament.

“I blame the rains. Had it rained the night preceding the game, all this poop would have been washed off, but rains betrayed HCA. How unfair (sic)!!” a cricket lover said.  

“BCCI would have given the budget but HCA should be held accountable, pathetic administration,” a user said.  

Later, Venkatesh clarified in another post that the stadium has now been renovated with brand new seats. He added that only Western Terrace stands and the old seats are bad. He further said that the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) did not have enough time at hand to replace all the bad chairs before the World Cup.  

Meanwhile, the warm-up match between India and Netherlands on Tuesday was abandoned due to persistent rainfall. Even the toss was delayed due to rain in Thiruvananthapuram, according to BCCI. The match was abandoned without a ball being bowled, according to ESPN.  

ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 schedule  

The World Cup 2023 will be held across 10 cities in India from October 5 to November 19, with semi-final and final matches being held in Mumbai and Kolkata respectively. The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium will hold three matches—Pakistan vs Netherlands (October 6), New Zealand vs Netherlands (October 9), and Pakistan vs Sri Lanka(October 10)—during this time. The Narendra Modi Stadium will host four matches of the World Cup—opening match between New Zealand on October 5, India vs Pakistan on October 14, England vs Australia on November 4, and the finale tournament on November 19.  

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