NEW DELHI: The weightlifting hall of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was the venue for a glittering function where the famous Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium was rechristened as Arun Jaitley Stadium in honour of the late Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president and former Union finance minister. Even the new players’ pavilion was named after Virat Kohli.
The ceremony was attended by the entire Indian T20I team picked for the South Africa series, legends like Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag to name a few, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Sport Minister Kiren Rijiju, Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, former sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and a host of BCCI officials -— both past and present.
The Home Minister digitally inaugurated the renamed Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in presence of late finance minister’s family and also gifted them a memento. Chants of “Kohli, Kohli” echoed as soon as the announcement regarding the pavilion was announced. “Never thought I would be honoured at such a grand scale,” said Kohli. “I don’t know how to address this as my family, wife, brother are here. It was in 2000 during a match against Zimbabwe, my childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma gave me two tickets.”
“I remember clinging to the gallery grill asking for Javagal Srinath’s autograph. I was telling my brother how far we have come. So today to have a pavilion in my name at the same stadium is surreal.”
The whole T20I team was felicitated after this by Shah and Rijiju following which the players posed for a group photograph. Delhi players in the group were joined by Sehwag on stage as they presented upcoming stars of the state — Dhruv Shorey, Navdeep Saini, Jonty Sidhu and Tejas Baroka among others with awards for their contribution towards the state team on the occasion of DDCA Annual Honours 2019.
Kapil Dev was full of praise for both Jaitley and Kohli. “Wonderful to have a stand in name of Virat. And whatever DDCA does for Arun Jaitley is not enough given his contribution.”
DDCA measures
Rajat Sharma, DDCA president announced the setting up of two cricket academies to cater to under-privileged kids, providing training free of cost. He also announced welfare schemes for state team’s present and former cricketers.