Pressing problems!

There were evidently too many people in the enclosure brandishing press passes8217; who had come only to watch the match, and enjoy it, but not to report it. And with no barricade separating them from the public gallery into which the enclosure extends, with a common entrance and exit for both, the problem was only aggravated.

Scribes not only had to bulldoze they way through the entrance whenever they had to go to the toilet a floor below, but had to constantly yell at the noisy public to keep quiteand let them work. The scorer, who announces all the statistical data, was hardly audible.

At the instance of his colleagues, a heftily built local scribe had to physically stand guard at the entrance for most of the duration of the match to prevent unauthorised persons from entering the press box.

When it transpired that it was the IPCL officials who had in fact issued the passes, the jurnos were livid. 8220;When the Baroda Cricket Association is organising the match,8221; said one of them, 8220;what business does the IPCL have to issue passes? We will not let the Board allot a match to Vadodara in the future. We8217;ve done that to Ahmedabad before, and we can do it to Vadodara.8221;

Lele blamed the IPCL authorities for the mess the journos found themselves in the thick of. 8220;The IPCL authorities have issued too many passes to the newspapers, when only those covering the match should have been given passes,8221; he said. There were some newspapers that had as many as 10 8220;representatives8221; present in the press box.

Hedid not spare the scribes either. 8220;It is your fault as well. Why should reporters who are not covering the match enter the press box at all? And then I get this,8221; he said, fishing out the memorandum from his pocket. He added that a local paper8217;s owner had called him up and demanded 150 passes, and that he had to tell him, quite curtly, that there were only 120 seats in the press box.

IPCL officials said it was the BCA, of which also Lele is the secretary, who had said they 8220;wanted only the ground and the wicket and wanted us to manage everything else8221;. And Lele said the reverse thing, that IPCL officials said they would manage everything else.

The matter is still unclear, but it was the sports scribes who were caught in the crossfire.