Rajkot: Police arrest youth attempting to dig up pitch at SCA Stadium
Rajkot: Police arrest youth attempting to dig up pitch at SCA Stadium

An attack at the Rajkot pitch in the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) Stadium was stopped by the police around four days back. It involved four college students as per reports. The incident took place in the evening of April 22. The young students got through the security to enter the ground. They had weapons which they intended to use so that they could dig up the pitch. When the police came to know about this, they came at the spot and arrested the youth. However, the reason for them doing so was not clear (when this incident was reported) after it had happened. Live Cricket Scorecard: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rising Pune Supergiants, IPL 2016, Match 22 at Hyderabad
SCA secretary Niranjan Shah was quoted by Cricbuzz saying, “This is going overboard now. Every day, there is some new agitation that is taking place and cricket is becoming its target.” It is felt that the agitation happened under the directions of political party. They did so as they thought that this was a way to protest by bringing to the attention of the authorities the usage of water while preparing the pitch. However, there is another narrative about the same. It says that the students were fighting for the reservations of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). India vs England 2016-17: Rajkot in fray to host first ever Test match
In India, SCs and STs are probably the most downtrodden of all the communities. Having been subjugated for centuries, reservations were believed to bring them at the level of other castes. It has helped to some extent but a lot is still left to be achieved. Reservations and politics are interlinked and hence it is a hot topic in the Indian political scenario. The police is investigating the case and we may get to know the real reason (whether the two stated above or something else) for the students having resorted to such an act.