Mumbai, May 27 (IANS) The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 fan park had a huge success in its inaugural year. Fifteen cities across India hosted the fan park with over 1.5 lakh enthusiastic visitors experiencing the thrill of watching the matches in a stadium-like setting.

During this edition of IPL, fans thronged the stadiums at the weekends in small cities or towns that are not hosting the matches and watched the action live on giant screens.

They also got to enjoy a complete weekend entertainment package consisting of a separate kids’ play area and a host of other fun-filled activities like face painting, music, food and beverages and cricket centre to develop batting and bowling skills.

The fans’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive. “It is no different than watching a game live in a stadium,” few fans said.

Fans stated that the unique initiative, and the experience of watching matches there, had helped them overcome their disappointments of not having a stadium in their respective hometowns, where IPL 2015 matches could be played.

“The fan park was instituted in the 2015 season. The numbers that visited the fan park in cities that haven’t hosted IPL matches as yet, speak for themselves. The fan park is a concept that will only go from strength to strength in the years to come,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur said in a release on Wednesday.

Among those who watched the IPL 2015 final, played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on May 24, were over 15,000 fans in the IPL Fan Park, at the Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium at Nashik.