Fire Services closes oval to control massive crowd

Bringing back memories of 1989 when fans thronged the Hasely Crawford Stadium to see this country play a football match, the Queen's Park Oval turned into a sea of red yesterday as T&T met Barbados in the finals of the Nagico Super50 tournament. By midday the ground was half full as fans brought back the good old days, reaching early for the 2 pm start and playing all fours to kill time. Before the match got off the Carib Beer Stand where the 'action' takes place, it was full to capacity and closed off. 

Soon after the entire ground was closed off by the fire service officials on hand, as they did not want a situation of overcrowding. While this was going on there were hundreds outside trying to get in. Fans were parading the perimeter of the Oval looking to get in but could not.

President of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) Azim Bassarath said it was a situation of the fire services closing off the stands where there were still a number of seats available. He said it was not a situation of the Oval being over sold. The gateson the western end was later opened to allow fans to utilise the grass embankment. Close to 10,000 fans attended the game yesterday.