Ranji Trophy 2025: Virat Kohli’s presence at stadium leads to heightened security as fans chant his name

The sun blazed down on Delhi, but nothing burned brighter than the passion of thousands of fans swarming the Arun Jaitley Stadium, their voices rising in unison— “Kohli! Kohli!”

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The air crackled with excitement as eager supporters, draped in blue jerseys and hoisting posters of their idol, jostled for a glimpse of the cricketing maestro. With the frenzy reaching fever pitch, security personnel moved swiftly to tighten measures, ensuring the stadium remained a fortress against the unstoppable tide of Virat Kohli mania.

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Seeing the overwhelming number of fans in attendance for the Delhi-Railways Ranji Trophy game on Thursday (Jan 30) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) said that more gates are slated to be opened for letting in spectators keen to see Virat Kohli in action.

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The sources have also said that top DDCA officials are currently meeting to get food arrangements for fans up and running from day one. It is understood that the expectation for fan attendance by DDCA was at 10,000, with gates 16 and 17 being opened and entry to be done on the basis of the Aadhaar card.

But with fans upwards of 15,000 from all parts of Delhi, as well as Noida, Ghaziabad and rest of the NCR region thronging the stadium and standing in queues from as early as 3 am, DDCA calculations went awry, and they had to open gate number 18 also for spectator entry before action began at 9:30 am, as Delhi won the toss and elected to bowl first against Railways.

The fans wishing to see Kohli in action were chanting names of him and IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru outside the venue, as well as in the Gautam Gambhir and Bishen Singh Bedi stands. With the work on food arrangements going on, RO water counters are already present in the stadium and are in working condition.

Sources also said the DDCA is increasing the presence of police personnel, aside from the previously made private security arrangements, especially after an eager fan ran in from North Stand to touch Kohli’s feet during the 12th over and was taken away, though the batting stalwart, stationed at second slip, asked for the intruder to be not hit harshly.

“We generally have 25-30 people for security in a Ranji Trophy game in Delhi. But with Virat coming in, we got 50 and now 100 security personnel in the stadium. We will get police people once they are done with their work around VIP movement in Rajghat,” added the sources.

Police personnel had been stationed near the boundary ropes of North and West stands to ensure no intruder invaded the field after the previous incident. The sources have also said that they have never seen these many spectators in attendance for a domestic red-ball game in New Delhi after a Duleep Trophy clash in the 80s, where Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar were in action for North and West Zones respectively, highlighting the pull Kohli has in Indian cricket.