India openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir escaped unhurt as cricket crazy crowds clashed with police, hurling stones and scuffling with men in uniform, at Moinul Haq stadium in Patna on Monday during the prize distribution ceremony of a Twenty20 cricket tournament.
None of the members of the Indian squad, including Praveen Kumar, who have been named for the Sri Lanka tour beginning later this month, was injured, superintendent of police(city) Anwar Hussain told PTI.
The stadium plunged into utter chaos when scores of unruly fans in their uncontrolled eagerness to have a close look at the cricket stars, scaled the iron mesh fence and climbed down on to the field where the stage was set for prize distribution by Governor R L Bhatia.
As they scrambled to come close to the players, the police overpowered a couple of them and rained baton blows.
Angry at this, hundreds of others in the stands began throwing stones at the police, inflicting minor injuries to two of them. Many other fans streamed into the ground through a portion of the fence that gave way.
Soon more policemen guarding the periphery of the stadium were called in and a security cordon was thrown around the players and the VIPs, including the Governor.
As the chaotic scenes continued for about half an hour, Bhatia gave away the Aircel T-20 cricket festival frontline trophy to Sehwag, ITC XI skipper.
