Sports

Adding to the evening's highlights was the official unveiling of the GCL Season 3 Trophy, the grand prize for which the world's best will battle over the next ten action-packed days. The ceremony was graced by Anand Mahindra, Chairperson of the Mahindra Group, whose presence underlined the league's ambition and growing global stature. He was joined by chess legends Viswanathan Anand, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Harika Dronavalli, Volodar Murzin, and Alireza Firouzja, as per a press release from GCL.

While the moment was supposed to be a moment of union between the World Cup-winning superstar and a football-crazy state, the presence of VIPs and politicians on the field with Messi sent fans into frenzy as they could barely catch a glimpse of the footballer for whom they had paid their hard-earned money. They alleged that their presence denied them a chance of catching a proper glimpse of the 38-year-old icon.

Dhull, who made an inspirational comeback to cricket after undergoing heart surgery last year, has been performing solidly in both red-ball and white-ball formats in domestic cricket.

Raiza shot 56 in the Women's Skeet final to secure the gold medal, one better than Yashasvi Rathore, who settled for silver with 55.

After his visit to Kolkata, Hyderabad on Saturday and Mumbai on Sunday, Delhi will be the final pit stop for the World Cup-winning football legend on Monday.

"...especially VIP culture - it becomes very difficult even to the organisers to stop a lot of VIPs who are not supposed to be there as well, I think they entered and crowded. The genuine fans did not really get to see Messi. So, I think that was where the fans were very upset......in future this has to be really well-organised and at the same time, lot of unwanted VIPs surrounding should be avoided," Bhaichung Bhutia told ANI.