Fire at Dhoni’s team hotel postpones Hazare semi-final

THE SECOND semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy between Jharkhand and Bengal and the final have been pushed back by a day each after a fire broke out on Friday morning at the hotel in Delhi's Dwarka area where the Jharkhand team, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was put up. Both games will now be played at the Ferozshah Kotla on Saturday and Monday respectively.

At6.30am,firebrokeoutatareliancestore, situatedonthefirstfloorofthehotel.members of the Jharkhand team, who were staying on the seventh floor, saw smoke billowing from below. The entire unit, along with the other guestswereaskedtoevacuatetheirroomsand assemble in the lobby. A call was made to the Delhifireservicesat7.00a.m.followingwhich close to 30 fire tenders rushed to the spot. The Jharkhand team as well as the other guests of the hotel were all reported to be safe.

"We generally assemble in the lobby at 7.30am before a game, but at 6.30 am I saw smoke coming from the ground floor. At first, I didn't realise what the matter was. It only struck me when I got a strong burning smell. Justthen,amemberofthehotelstaffknocked atmydoorandaskedmetoevacuatetheroom immediately using the stairs. They had barred us from using the lift due to security concerns. The entire team and the other guests assembled in the lobby," Jharkhand team manager PN Singh said.

Singh immediately called the state associationinranchiaswellasmatchrefereesanjay Varma, informing them about the incident. "The match referee asked us to leave the hotel premisesandheadtothestadium.ourjerseys were in our rooms, but under those circumstances, there was no way we could have returned to our rooms," he added.

The Jharkhand team went to the Palam Ground and met the match referee, and the Bengal team, and the decision was taken to reschedulethegame.theteamwouldonlyreturn to their hotel two hours later — much after the fire was put out.

Ishankishan,jharkhand'syoungtop-order batsman, said the fiasco had caught him and his team-mates off guard. He, however, quashed rumours doing the rounds suggesting that the players' cricket gear was damaged bythefire."thesereportsareincorrectandabsolutely baseless. Our cricket gear was at the stadium," he said.

Friday's incident was not the only reason why the BCCI decided to relocate the semi-final, from the Palam Ground to the Feroz Shah Kotla. The shoddy security cover provided to Dhoni and his team during Jharkhand's quarter-final tie against Vidarbha at Palam obviously has not impressed the Board.

"I think it has more to do with the way things panned out during our previous game at Palam. The security struggled to contain the crowd. There were also instances of people coming onto the pitch. With a player like Dhoni around, BCCI must have decided not to take any more chances. The Kotla is a bigger ground, and the security is also better there," Singh offered.

So,thebccihasaskedthejharkandteamto

Jharkhand’s Pratyush Singh (left) & Ishan Kishan on Friday.