Young volunteers have a ball at IPL

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The ongoing fifth season of IPL has given young cricket fans from various colleges a chance to be part of the mega event in the role of volunteers at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, and cheer and support their local team Delhi Daredevils.

Based on volunteering experience, management skills and passion for cricket, 100 volunteers were selected by city’s event management companies.

The role of volunteers has been divided into various sections including spectator services, venue and workforce operations, media centre, corporate boxes, captain gallery, entertainment sector and the protocol area, which manages high-profile guests. After few weeks of training, groups of volunteers were divided and deputed to various departments.

Uttkarsh Khurana, a second year law student from Symbiosis Law School, Noida, who is a part of the entertainment section, is supervising cheerleaders. “We have to take care of the cheerleaders, their security and other services.

The best thing about this job is that you get a chance to watch the match live at the stadium. I recently met Dhoni and Kevin Pietersen and was thrilled to see them. I’m looking forward to Mumbai Indians’ match and meeting Sachin Tendulkar.”

There’s no stipend, but these volunteers get perks including `150 as daily transport fare, a travel bag with the team’s merchandise along with refreshments.

“The stipend doesn’t really matter, the work profile is great and helps us gain hands-on experience on how things work while organising such mega events,” says Shailendra Pal Singh, a volunteer handling the hospitality section at the captain gallery, an exclusive seating area for VVIPs near the commentator and media house.

Managing high-profile guests, Ashutosh Vijay loves his job of handling the corporate boxes. “We are a team of five members, we have to deal with special guests at the corporate boxes. Our job includes distributing merchandise, flags and providing proper services and security to them.

As there are just five such exclusive boxes near the ground, it’s a great view to watch matches from there. I like organising events and it will help me develop my management skills further. Though it’s a tiring job, the cheerful crowd at the stadium relaxes me,” he adds.

And there are few who are supporting other teams like Rajasthan Royals as volunteers. Astha, an event management student from Jaipur, who is handling the whole accreditation process of Rajasthan Royals says, “Being a national level cricket player, to work in an entirely new field of sports management of international repute was an exciting option for me. I’m learning how to manage work under pressure.”

Hameer Jhala, a B.Com from Symbiosis (Pune), shares, “I’m handling sales and partly operations work and the experience has been great so far. We also get to travel to various places for matches which is great,” he sums up.