Jagmohan Dalmiya's VIP Welcome Leaves Kids Foxed, Gasping
Nearly 50 young school girls waited for an hour to greet newly-elected BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya but the reception party was hijacked by overenthusiastic Cricket Association of Bengal officials.
Hours after Bengal cricket strongman Jagmohan Dalmiya was officially named president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), his hometown of Kolkata was ready to give the veteran administrator a resounding welcome. At least 50 school girls - many in uniform - waited to receive Dalmiya, with 'thalis' of flower petals in their hands at Kolkata's Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose International Airport.
The girls, some of them as young as eight years, were residents of an orphanage called the Refuge. Cricket Association of Bengal president Biswarup Dey is a joint-secretary of the orphanage. The reception, organised by the CAB, was not well received by the general public at the airport, who were hugely inconvenienced by the 'tamasha'. (Dalmiya Scripts Stunning Turnaround of Fortunes)
"The young kids did not have a clue as to who Dalmiya was, or what the BCCI or CAB is. After an hour-long wait, the 'VIP' arrived and he was mobbed to the extent that he had to go back inside the airport. It was almost a stampede. These young girls could have hurt themselves," Shashant Daswani, who happened to be at the Kolkata airport, told NDTV. He revealed that the girls did not even get a glimpse of Dalmiya after waiting for him way past their bedtime. Daswani revealed people had to wait for close to an hour at gate 1B of the arrival section of the airport. (Dalmiya's Return Will Keep Srinivasan Camp Afloat in Indian Cricket Politics)
Dalmiya, pushing 75, was returning from Chennai after becoming the BCCI president after a decade. He was virtually mobbed by overzealous CAB officials, keen to garland him. The young girls watched in awe as did several horrified onlookers, who once again got a glimpse of what "VIP" treatment could lead to.
(With inputs from Monideepa Banerjee)