Gen Rodrigues for top class facilities at cricket stadium

Chandigarh, July 27 (UNI) Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Union Territory Administrator S F Rodrigues today asked senior officers of the Chandigarh Administration to establish a world-class infrastructure at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium here in view of the one-day international cricket match between India and Australia scheduled for October 8.

Presiding over a meeting of the Organizing Committee for the match at UT Secretariat, here today, General (retd.) Rodrigues stressed the need for grass root level preparations for holding the ODI successfully.

He emphasized the need for evolving a responsive monitoring system to identify shortcomings and to take corrective measures immediately for conducting this international match.

The meeting, which was attended by Mr Ranbir Singh Mahindra, Secretary Haryana Cricket Association and senior officers of the Chandigarh Administration, including Administrator's Adviser Lalit Sharma, discussed upgradation of the infrastructure of the stadium.

The meeting reviewed the preparations for the ODI and formed various committees.

Besides the Orgnaising Committee, a Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of Adviser to Administrator has been set up to overview the functioning of different committees set up for different functions.

These committees included Infrastructure Committee, Traffic Control Committee, Technical Committee, Finance Committee, Media Committee, Medical Committee, Protocol and Hospitality Committee.

General Rodrigues informed the meeting that the Administration had already started the process for setting up a world class coaching academy for cricket and was a tie-up arrangement with Australia.

He stressed that our sportspersons must optimally use all these infrastructural facilities for achieving the best results in national and international events.

He said that with a view to preparing a world class girls hockey team in Chandigarh in the next two years, necessary steps have been initiated by identifying talent in education institutions and to develop their talent to meet the international standards.

He said that the Hockey Federation of India has also been approached to help in creating training facilities for youngsters in the city with a view to achieve excellence and for improving their performance.

General Rodrigues assured former BCCI President Ranbir Singh Mahindra of full support of the Chandigarh Administration and said that the Cricket Stadium would be fully equipped with all infrastructural facilities much before the event.

He said that each committee must meet regularly to monitor the progress of work assigned to them and effectively coordinate with each other to ensure fool-proof arrangements for the event.

Finance Secretary S K Sandhu explained the constitution of different committees and details of work assigned to them. He informed that the targets have been fixed for accomplishing different works in time-bound manner.

Mr Ranbir Singh Mahendra said that the Haryana Cricket Association will do its best to make this event a memorable one. '' our focus will be to set new goals and standards to be emulated by the organizers in future international Cricket matches'', he said.

Home Secretary Krishna Mohan, Inspector General of Police S K Jain, Deputy Commissioner R K Rao, Chief Engineer V K Bhardwaj, SSP Dinesh Bhatt, Sports Director Inderjeet Singh Sandhu, Tourism and Public Relations Director Vivek Attray, and Health Services Director Dr M S Bains also attended the meeting.

UNI