Kudla Cricket Fans Cheer IPL Teams ‘DC & CSK’ at Nehru Maidan ‘VIVO IPL Fan Park’
Mangaluru : Mangaluru hasn’t seen anything like this before, where the cricket fans had an opportunity to watch the Delhi Capital and Chennai Super Kings on the giant lCD screen set up at the VIVI IPL Fan Park at Nehru Maidan on Friday, 10 May 2019. In a bid to simulate a stadium-like environment to watch Indian Premier League matches, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had picked Mangaluru as one of the 35 plus cities to screen the IPL match, at the Fan Park , which made fans feel like they are watching their favourite teams at close quarters. BCCI had initiated the move to create a fan park so that they could bring IPL closer to the fans.
The venue also had facilities like free distribution of drinking water, toilets and kids zone. The venue had live commentary by Anurag Bangera of Mangaluru (in between the game) and music and the Delhi Capitals & Chennai Super Kings were shot the entire event for live up-link to be broadcasted from the IPL venue. No doubt this unique event encouraged and motivated young cricketers of Mangaluru to work harder to play in major tournaments and IPL in the near future. Even though last year the IPL Fan Park event at Nehru Maidan got washed out due to heavy lightning and thunderstorms, but this year the weather being gorgeous, thousands of Mangaloreans had an opportunity to the IPL cricket at this special IPL Fan Park.
Initiated in 2015, this season the VIVO IPL Fan Fan Park has extended its footprints to newer territories, spread across 21 states and covering 36 cities, where Fan Park 2019 looked forward to cover regions with limited options of entertainment, thereby trying to bring about a social change through community viewing. Apart from Mangaluru for once again being the lucky one on the list, the new cities added this year are Tezpur, Gangtok, Bhilai, Una, Shivamogga, Tirunelveli, Madurai and Trichy.
IPL Fan Park initiates in giving the fans living far away from the live action relive the excitement and atmosphere that comes with watching an IPL match with friends and family in a public location. The Fan Park is a BCCI property which is done to boost the games popularity across all cities in India and a reach out to almost all the fans situated in different parts of the country. While there was NO ENTRY FEE, but fans had to register at the entrance to avail lucky coupons, where couple of lucky winners took home VIVO mobile phones.There were also food/beverage stalls inside the Park, along with music. Special seating arrangements were made for the senior citizens and differently-abled people, and there was a Air conditioned VIP lounge for the Big influential honchos?