It was supposed to be a battle of the stars with eight top Kannada actors including Puneeth Rajkumar, Shiva Rajkumar, Upendra, Yash, Duniya Vijay, Srinagara Kitti, Yogish and others leading eight cricket teams in the fourth edition of the Dr Raj Cup. Hassan, the venue, was decked up with banners announcing the arrival of almost the entire Sandalwood industry from Bengaluru. Tickets were priced between Rs100 and Rs1,000.But the weekend saw not only the stars but also the people keeping away from the ground! DAMP SQUIB
The fourth edition of the Dr Raj Cup cricket tournament turned out to be a damp squib due to infighting in the film industry. The tournament has always been organised by the Kannada Film Dancers Association, led by Rajesh Brahma var. But with Brahmavar starting a parallel film workers union earlier this year, which led to a virtual division in the industry, the cricket tournament felt the effects.
The tournament started on Saturday. Only Srinagar Kitty and Rakshit Shetty among the big names arrived and took charge of two teams. What was supposed to be a 25,000-strong crowd did not materialise and hardly a few hundred trickled in. The organisers threw open the gates and entry was made free. It did not help.
On the ground, the allegations and counter allegations that professional cricketers were being used by some teams cropped up. Rakshit Shetty's team was lined up to check if there was a professional player among them. Then the allegation surfaced that the Press Club team had three professional players.
On Sunday, things were a little better. In the morning it was announced that Puneeth Rajkumar was on the way. People started trickling in again in the hope of seeing the star.Tickets were again made free. Puneeth arrived, stayed for some time and then left. Duniya Vijay too made a visit. Puneeth went around the ground in an open jeep, while Vijay sung three songs.
High and dry
But the audience, who were promised that all these stars would battle each other on the cricket field were left high and dry. The posters promising eight top stars stands in stark contrast to the photo of the film personalities who posed at the ground.
All the matches except the finals were to be completed in the two days.
But a few of the matches could not be played at all.These will have to be played in Bengaluru now.
The final was to be held in Malaysia on December 7. This is unlikely to be the case now, said insiders.
The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) election is scheduled for December 12 and it is unlikely that stars who did not turn up for the matches in Hassan would turn up in Malaysia.
Bangalore MIRROR
