By IANS
New Delhi : An open bus ride Thursday from the airport to the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here for the triumphant Indian cricket team that won the tri-series in Australia has been cancelled as the players “are very tired” and want to get back home as quickly as possible.
The celebration will now be confined to a felicitation for the team at the Ferozeshah Kotla, where entry will be free for the public, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Rajeev Shukla said Wednesday.
“Since the players are tired after the long tour and desperate to get back to their homes, and also because of the Shivratri festival, the open bus ride along the route from the airport to the stadium has been cancelled,” said Shukla.
The team will land in Mumbai around 11 a.m. and fly to Delhi in a chartered Kingfisher flight. The players will be taken to the Inter Continental Hotel from where they will be brought to the Kotla for the felicitation function.
Another plan to have the players ride an open bus from Connaught Place to the Kotla has also been called off.
BCCI President Sharad Pawar will attend the function in New Delhi. Among the political dignitaries expected to be present at the Kotla on Thursday are the Delhi Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna and Mayor Aarti Mehra, said Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president Arun Jaitley.
“Those who wish to come to the function will be allowed to sit only in the audience galleries. The entry will be free and the gates will be opened at 1 p.m. for the 3 p.m. function,” said Jaitley.
In recent times, officials of the Indian cricket board and politicians have hogged all the limelight at such felicitation functions held for the Twenty20 World Championship-winning Indian team in Mumbai and the under-19 World Cup-winning boys.
Asked where the players would sit Thursday, Jaitley avoided a direct answer, and said, “You don’t make a controversy. You will come to know tomorrow.”