Here’s a surprise — the Indian team, which famously won the triangular series in Australia, will not get an open-bus ride through Delhi’s streets. Not for want of trying though.The Indian Twenty20 team had ridden through Mumbai’s streets after their triumph in South Africa, and even the junior World Cup champions made a similar journey from Bangalore airport to the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.Dhoni & Co were scheduled to travel from Janpath to Ferozeshah Kotla in a similar parade, but there has been a change in plans due to Delhi traffic, Maha Shivratri celebrations and a lack of time. Instead, they will be quietly brought to the Kotla for a public felicitation function. The team will arrive in Delhi at around 1pm from Mumbai on a special chartered flight and will be taken to a city hotel before they head to the stadium. “We were getting calls from all across Delhi to make Team India travel across the city. But that is not feasible. We had earlier decided that the team would be taken from Janpath to Kotla in an open bus, but tomorrow is a holiday and the traffic is too hectic in Delhi. In Mumbai, it took five hours for the procession to complete and the players will be too tired after this long tour. Everyone wants to get back home,” BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla said.Entry into the stadium, though, is free and fans can watch the felicitation ceremony from the galleries, which will be open from 1pm. As announced earlier, the team will be felicitated with Rs 10 crore. It is learnt that the felicitation, which is scheduled to start at 3:30pm, will witness a song and dance show by professionals and that the players are also expected to be taken around in a golf cart for the public. Rajeev Shukla, who is also the secretary of the Uttar Pradesh cricket association, said the UPCA had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for Praveen Kumar and Rs 1 lakh each for Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla and Tanmay Srivastava. The DDCA too has plans to felicitate their players. “India U-19 skipper Virat Kohli and Pradeep Sangwan will be given a cash price of Rs 2.5 lakhs,” DDCA secretary S P Bansal told The Indian Express. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who were a part of the Twenty20 World Cup winning squad, will be given their long-pending cash reward of Rs 5 lakh as well, he added.
