The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Delhi cricketers felicitated

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Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008
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Delhi cricketers felicitated

NEW DELHI: Finally, Delhi has a floodlit facility at the historic Ferozeshah Kotla ground.

For long, the Capital had to make do with dilapidated structure in the name of an international cricket venue. Today, the newly built cricket theatre stands out and a new pavilion gives Kotla the much-needed facelift.

On Monday, the stadium’s floodlights were formally inaugurated ahead of Saturday’s campaign-opener of Delhi Daredevils in the DLF-Indian Premier League.

The formal inauguration was preceded by the felicitation of Delhi’s Ranji Trophy-winning team. The team was given a purse of Rs. 50 lakh by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and another Rs. 21 lakh by the Delhi and District Cricket Association.

Speaking on the occasion, BCCI President Sharad Pawar noted that Delhi has more representation as compared to once-formidable Mumbai, in the Indian team. “Though I represent Mumbai, I am happy to say that there are at least half a dozen Delhi players in the Test and ODI teams as compared to two or three from Mumbai.”

Fantastic year

After Mr. Pawar listed the achievements of a “Board that cares,” the DDCA President Arun Jaitley hailed 2008 as a fantastic year for the cricket lovers of the Capital. “This year, we have completed two phases of a world-class stadium. Now we have floodlights, too. Our team won the Ranji Trophy and our cricketer Virat Kohli led India to victory in the under-19 World Cup.

“Virender Sehwag became only the third cricketer to score two triple centuries in Test cricket and Gautam Gambhir has done exceptionally well in the ODIs,” said Mr. Jaitley and significantly, promised the right “environment” for cricket once the new club house and ‘covered’ practice facility came up in the third phase of construction.”

Also present on the occasion was Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, who chose to describe the Kotla of past as “historically dilapidated,” former Board President I.S. Bindra and Chairman of Cricket Australia Creagh O’Connor among others.

DDCA also presented watches to Sehwag and Sunil Dev, who was the manager of the India under-19 team for the World Cup.

Later Mr. Bindra welcomed the idea of the England and Wales Cricket Board to have its own version of the IPL. “Let every country have its own premier league. That will help us have a quality Champions 20s competition,” he said. — Special Correspondent

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