LAHORE - Troops took over Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday to ensure foolproof security for the final match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) that is scheduled to be played here on March 5.
A high-level meeting of the military, Rangers and police officers with PCB and PSL management was held at the Gaddafi Stadium to review security arrangements for the final.
Police and army contingents are to be deployed in and around the stadium, while no parking will be allowed within 400 yards of the venue. Five-tier security — almost equal to the security for a head of state — will be given to all players during their travel to and from the stadium. Additionally, biometric identification of all those coming to the stadium to watch the match will be mandatory and no one will be allowed entry without showing his or her Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC).
On the other hand, Gaddafi Stadium is being embellished by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to make the mega event most momentous, enthralling and vibrant. Not only the roads in and outside the Gaddafi Stadium are being repaired, the poles, seats and the entire arena is also being whitewashed and decorated.
One of the significant steps taken in this regard is inauguration of a new VIP enclosure, which will be used by the PSL management to perform their professional duties in a smooth manner. The addition of the new enclosure has enhanced the seating capacity from 25,000 to almost 30,000.
The lowest rate of a PSL final ticket is Rs500 and these tickets will be available for just 10,000 people. The remaining tickets will cost Rs4,000 to Rs12,000 per person despite the fact that ordinary citizens cannot buy such expensive tickets.
One of the main dilemmas of this cricket crazy nation is whether and how to get PSL final tickets. The PCB had announced earlier this week that it would put PSL final tickets on sale on Tuesday, but it didn’t. As a result, people remained in a state of confusion throughout the day. They kept waiting outside different banks to get tickets and visited the website www.qticket.com/psl/ time and again to buy tickets, but to no avail.
PSL chairman Najam Sethi said on Tuesday that cricket fans could buy PSL final tickets either online at the given website or from two banks (names of which will be announced later). An insider told this scribe that the two banks, the PSL head had talked about, were likely to be PSL official partners HBL and JS Bank and people could buy tickets for the final match from them.