The Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli is obviously very popular amongst his fans for his unmatched batting abilities, captaincy. There are no two ways about it – Virat Kohli is a huge fan favorite across the globe. He has been in hunger of runs since few years.
He is the only cricketer who is breaking all records in cricket history. Thus, each and every fan of him wants to meet him and take an autograph and a picture. Sometimes, the fans cross their limits and do anything to meet their idols.
In this regard, an overenthusiastic fan caused a serious security breach on Sunday during the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur. The fan ran into the middle of the ground to congratulate the India skipper Virat Kohli on his 32nd ODI century.
As soon as Kohli took a single off Mitchell Santner in the 44th over of the innings, the fan jumped on to the ground and started running towards him with a shirt bearing Kohli’s name on it. But he stopped near the square-leg umpire.
Stopping the match in the process, the fan kept waving to a full-house crowd till a stadium personnel hauled him off the ground. According to the reports, the fan has been detained by local police. This isn’t the first incident when a fan has jumped security in an international match at the venue.
Interestingly, the security for this match had been heightened after the Pune fiasco. Though that depended on more on the pre-match security arrangements, security was expected to be foolproof. The extra vigil here comes after the suspension of Pune curator Pandurang Salgaonkar, who allegedly agreed to tamper the pitch ahead of the second ODI in Pune.
In Kanpur, accreditation had been issued for the game to over 2300 persons. Of them, at least 100 persons have access to the pitch, players’ pavilion, the match referee, umpires etc. The management had also instructed the security officials and groundsmen to not give access to anyone into the venue without a valid pass and not to discuss the nature of the pitch with anyone, prior to playing.