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Media left in lurch at IPL opening

The IPL 2013 opening ceremony may have enthralled the Kolkata crowd, but inadequate media facilities stumped hordes of scribes gathered from across the country. 

With no separate media facilities at the grand venue, with a seating capacity of 120,000, the journalists were seated among the crowd and basic devices like laptop were not allowed to be carried by them. 

As the ceremony began, the excited crowd stood on the chairs to have a better view of the proceedings and the scribes had no choice but follow suit. 

The media box was used by Red Chillies

The scribes also faced difficulties in accessing telecommunication networks with jammers being put in place. This added to the woes faced by journalists, who were already bearing the brunt of a disorganised programme. 

"This is so disappointing ... I am getting erratic phone signals due to the jammers. I am texting my story to my office and they are doing the needful," a miffed Mumbai journalist said.    

The Salt Lake stadium does have a spacious media box but that was being used for some other purposes by the Shah Rukh co-owned Red Chillies Entertainment Limited, the opening ceremony organisers.

Mediapersons couldn't carry laptops

"The media box facility is unavailable as that is taken over by RCE and the big stage is erected in front of it.

"Mediapersons are requested not to carry laptops and manage on their own," read a statement from the local Cricket Association of Bengal.

This was unlike opening ceremonies in the past editions when basic facilities like wifi and telephone network were available.