Soft drink with fungus cream

NEW DELHI, Aug 10: It is not often that thirsty sportspersons actually peer into the contents of a soft-drink bottle before taking a swig...

NEW DELHI, Aug 10: It is not often that thirsty sportspersons actually peer into the contents of a soft-drink bottle before taking a swig. Luckily, this time they did during half-time in the match between Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh in the Independence Cup sub-junior hockey tournament organised by the Sports Authority of India at the National Stadium. And what did they find? Fungus and possibly some insects.

The players and the umpires, who discovered the foreign particles inside the sealed Pepsi bottles served to them, refused to drink them. The surprised organisers then hurriedly removed the bottles from the public eye.

National umpires Ashok Mathur, Kishori Lal Azad, TS Negi and Gurcharan Singh, who were present during the match, then requested the organisers to check the entire stock. They discovered to their horror that several bottles had fungus and insects inside.

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“I asked one of the organisers whether Pepsi had introduced a new brand cola with cream,” said one umpire jokingly. Apparently,several officials and players have been drinking from the same lot for the past four or five days. “They were lucky to escape food poisoning,” he added.

When this reporter visited the spot, a couple of youngsters had piled up these bottles in a corner, apparently waiting for the SAI officials to take notice. “I was not aware of this incident and I even had one (Pepsi) in the afternoon. I hope everything is alright,” a concerned ball-boy sporting a Pepsi T-shirt said.

It was learnt that Pepsi has entered into an agreement with the SAI to supply free T-shirts and soft drinks — to the players and officials in return for banners at the sidelines.

So much for freebies!