City’s date with IPL today

The stadium has a capacity of 45,000 and 38,000 tickets have already been sold out. The rest of the seats will be for corporate boxes,officials,VVIPs and VIPs. PCMC cricket coach Raju Kotwal says,“Nehru stadium in the city has 20,000-25,000 capacity. It has hosted some international matches. But Gahunje stadium will break all past records. In fact,all the matches will witness a full house,” he said.

Former PCMC player Rajendra Shelkhe says,“Despite the fact that the stadium is located far away from the city,enthusaism of people has to be seen to be believed.”

At the hotel,a kiosk displaying PWI memorabilia has been set up. A Walk of Fame that displays giant screened posters of PWI players has also been set up in one of the corridors.

Abhijit Chitnis,director of sales and marketing,says,“PWI has been staying here even before the IPL began. They came to the hotel on March 25 while they were practising at the stadium. The team along with the visiting teams will be staying at our premises over the next two months during the home matches.” Along with the Marriott,the Westin Hotel,Le Meridien,Hyatt and Ista were also in the race to host the home and the visiting teams,Marriott won the bid. An official from Sahara says,“The stadium is around 31 kms from the hotel. The others were very far,that was one of the main reasons for choosing this as the host hotel.” Talking about security aspect,Chitnis says they have installed multiple check points for guests as well as hotel staff.

“In addition to checking of cars luggage and passengers,CCTV cameras have been installed in the entire hotel. Blast proof walls have been installed at the hotel.” He also mentions that close to 200 rooms will be booked for every match.

The people coming to the hotel include top management from Sahara,television crews for the game,BCCI,IPL and ICC officials and the teams. “We have close to 100 people coming in from both the teams that include the management,support staff,players and officials.”

In addition,the IPL has also hired South African security management firm NSA to oversee security at the hotel.

Both the teams will have dedicated conference rooms and dedicated physiotherapy rooms. Sahara officials said the teams will be occupying the 23rd floor of the hotel.

Over the next two months,a collection of special dishes that key players of the PWI like will be included in the hotel menu. Chitnis says,“We have identified 10 players from the PWI that include the likes of Sourav Ganguly,Robin Uthappa,Ashish Nehra,Rohit Sharma,Wayne Parnell. We will be including dishes that they like.”

A merchandise store is also being set up at the hotel where fans can purchase items like official jerseys,caps,bags,flags amongst others.