Some of the fans who turned up in large numbers to watch the Tollywood Trophy Cricket 2010 at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday had their enthusiasm dampened when police used lathis on them.
The over-enthusiastic fans complained that they had bought tickets to watch their favourite film actors take a day off their hectic schedules and play cricket, but could not gain entry into the stadium.
A large contingent of police personal, a few of them on horseback, had been positioned around the stadium since late on Saturday night, to control any untoward incident. Braving the sizeable posse of cops, however, the enraged fans tried to barge into the stadium, and were expectedly turned back by the lathis. Police officials then appealed to fans to watch the cricket matches on television.
A large number of fans voiced their anger against Movie Arts Association chief Murali Mohan for mismanaging the event. They said that he should be held accountable for allowing the printing of more tickets than the seating capacity.
Meanwhile, pro-Telangana supporters raised objections to the cricket match between the Tollywood film actors, claiming that no actor from Telangana was made captain of any of the teams, trying to raise the 'regional bias' bogey.