On match eve, cops call all the shots

"The police want all the labour out of here now," a harassed looking gentleman was telling DDCA general secretary SP Bansal on Thursday afternoon. "I have 150 labourers here, what do I do?"

Bansal looked at him and shrugged. "They (the cops) are making the decisions. You have to make sure they vacate the premises for now, this is the Pakistan team and we can't take any chances."

Bansal said the problem was that while the Kotla renovation (it looks quite magnificent) is nearly done, some work was still left. This meant two possible security risks from the police viewpoint — dozens of unorganised labour all around and heaps of rubble, cement and other stuff here and there (see picture). While the Kotla is not looking like a fortress yet — it will probably look like that during the Test later this month — there will still be a sizeable security presence in and around the ground on Friday. While the DDCA will have a 100 private security guards from the usual "Vigilant Security", the Delhi Police and the IB have already staked out the place. It would be advisable for all comers — they expect 10,000 given that the entry is free — to not carry anything on the regular banned list of items, big bags, bottles, anything that be used as a weapon, etc.