Giving a rousing welcome to their cricket heroes, thousands of euphoric fans had turned up at the stadium, entry to which was free. To the special arena for VIPs and VVIPs, however, entry was restricted. Coming from their Ranjit Nagar home in West Delhi, Ishant’s father Vijay Kumar Sharma and other family members were left stranded at the main gate of the stadium as they were not allowed inside.

It was only after a scribe interfered and told security officials that they were parents of Ishant, a cricketer from Delhi and part of Team India, were they allowed to go in. They, however, never got a chance to meet Ishant as the VIP arena was still out of bounds for them.

The arena was flooded with BCCI officials, former and present DDCA officials and other dignitaries like Mayor Aarti Mehra, Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna and India’s U-19 skipper Virat Kohli and team member Pradeep Sangwan, who were also felicitated on Wednesday.

As a result, the upcoming star’s parents had no option but to see the event from the stands. As a host, the DDCA was once again clueless about the goings on. Its officials, however, had their excuse ready.

“We had to arrange everything on a very short notice. It all got messed up because the crowd turned up in such huge numbers. We did send an invite to Ishant’s family but we seriously don’t know how they could not enter. They should have called us when stopped at the gates,” DDCA general secretary S P Bansal told Newsline.

Vice-president C K Khanna blamed it on the BCCI. “The BCCI had arranged the ceremony. We could not have done anything. If something like this has happened, I will definitely look into the matter.”