Rain plays spoilsport in QBR celebration

Kolkata: With monsoon at its peak, the elaborate arrangements for the Queen`s Baton Relay turned out to be a damp squib after it arrived at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport an hour behind schedule, here on Sunday. Led by India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia, a boast of sportspersons including Olympian Soma Biswas, Asian Games double gold medallist Jyotirmoyee Sikdar and yesteryear`s football star Tulsidas Balaram welcomed the Baton at the airport. Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly, Bengal Olympic Association chief Paresh Nath Mukherjee and Secretary Kamalesh Chatterjee were also present at the airport to receive the Baton, which arrived here from Tripura capital Agartala. Amid heavy downpour, the Baton was then taken to the Bodyguard Lines in a lackluster manner as there were no waving of schoolchildren along the 15-km route, as it was planned earlier. "Rains have shattered all our plans. We had planned to bring about 5,000 schoolchildren, waving flags along the route till the Bodyguard Lines where the Baton will be kept. But the weather has played a spoilsport," BOA Secretary Kamalesh Chatterjee told reporters. From the Bodyguard Lines in Alipore, the Baton would be taken to the Victoria Memorial at around 3 pm where former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly would join the celebration. "We hope the weather to clear a bit so we can expect some crowd gathering when the Baton Relay begins from the North Gate of Victoria Memorial at 3 pm," he said. Organisers of the event, the West Bengal government and the BOA, have also cancelled the cultural programme scheduled in the evening at Police Training School. It will now be held at the Bodyguard Lines. After a day`s stopover in the city, the QBR will head to some district towns covering about 300 kms, traversing through Bardwan, Panagarh, Durgapur and Asansol before reaching Dhanbad in Jharkhand on August 4. The Baton Relay for the Delhi Commonwealth Games was launched on October 29 last year at the Buckingham Palace in London, with Queen Elizabeth II handing the Baton to President Pratibha Patil. The Baton was then handed to Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra, who had started the journey with a relay around the Queen Victoria Monument. The QBR then traversed through all the Commonwealth nations and territories before reaching India, where it is on a 100-day journey covering 400 cities. QBR will reach its final destination Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games to be held from October 3-14. PTI