Entertainment or ordeal?

KARACHI: Its around seven in the evening and the Pakistan Super League final is still an hour away. But the main gates leading to the Hanif Muhammad Enclosure – one of the VIP stands – have already been locked. Tens of dozens spectators standing on either sides of the gates are stranded.

This correspondent asked one of the security personnel guarding a gate as to what was the logic behind locking the entrances at a time when fans were still waiting to get inside and he replied: “We’ve been told to lock down the gates as there is VVIP movement.”

Such chaotic scenes were everywhere as Karachi celebrated the return of big-time cricket in almost a decade with the PSL final featuring defending champions Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United.

Roads were blocked all over the city hours before the start of the match. Such was the security that even journalists, carrying their accreditation cards as well as VIP parking stickers, were forced to walk for miles to get to the venue.

If that wasn’t enough, there were long queues of spectators waiting for hours get into the stadium. Some of the entrances were closed down as the scanners there weren’t working.

Many fans were unable to enter the stadium despite having valid tickets.

Since it was the first cricket match of this magnitude in Karachi in a long time such chaos wasn’t surprising. But the thing is that expectations are high that big-time cricket will continue in the city especially after the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to host the three-match Twenty20 International series here next week.

That’s why the city’s administration will have to learn to tackle things in a more professional manner and they will have to learn fast. Expecting that the VIP culture can be curbed here will be expecting too much but things should change. There is certainly a big appetite for quality cricket in this city of over 20 million but watching a cricket match should be a source of entertainment and not an ordeal. Otherwise, the country’s cricket authorities will find it tough to fill the National Stadium the way they did for the PSL finale.