England fans ‘left without water in India with all bottles confiscated and none on sale inside stadium’
ENGLAND fans have reportedly been left without water during the First Test in India.
Around 1,000 Barmy Army supporters made the trip for the first day of action, with the hosts making a strong start in Hyderabad.
But despite temperatures soaring into the high 20s celsius, parched fans were allegedly left with little-to-no water.
The Telegraph claims bottles, both empty and full, were confiscated upon entry to the stadium.
Fans had been warned prior to arrival that this could be the case, with sun cream also taken away, and they would have to buy water at the venue.
However, it has also been claimed that there was virtually no water on sale inside the arena.
Almost every single drinks stand was said to be closed.
And the only real source of water around was via a few fountains.
But these were extremely inaccessible due to long queues, as well as worries over the water’s safety and quality.
Some desperate fans were left trying to fill up food containers to beat the heat, with many buying popcorn before reusing the paper bucket for water.
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Chuck Adolphy, a tour manager for the Barmy Army’s travel arm, said: “You can’t bring anything in other than a phone and a wallet.
“You are not allowed sun cream, water, or even empty bottles. There are water dispensers in here, which we hope are filtered, with lots of long queues.
“But if you can’t bring a bottle in it’s difficult to fill up. There’s been no water on sale.
“The solution today has been fans buying popcorn, eating it, then queuing to fill the paper bucket the popcorn is served in with water, which obviously isn’t the best situation for a couple of reasons.
“We feel that it’s fair enough not to let people bring stuff in, we were ok with that, but to then have nothing on sale [is not ideal].
“We’ve been telling people beforehand that there would be stuff available in the ground. There are a few drinks stands, but almost all of them aren’t open.”
SunSport has contacted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for comment.