BENGALURU: Spinners BS Chandrashekar and EAS Prasanna and batsman Gundappa Vishwanath enthralled the world with their version of cricket in the seventies and former MLC Mohan Kondajji has said he will take it up as a campaign to name the stands at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after the three greats who still inspire reverence.
Responding to Kondajji’s Facebook post, former minister and BJP MLA Suresh Kumar said, “Sure, much needed. I will do my part.”
Historian Ramachandra Guha has on record made this proposal and said he spoke to Brijesh Patel and BCCI Chairman Roger Binny about naming the stands after the three great cricketers. He has said it was due to Vishwanath’s batting that Karnataka defeated strong teams -- Delhi and Bombay -- to lift the Ranji Trophy five decades ago.
Kondajji, a filmmaker, said he will take it up with the state government especially with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who remains a great cricket lover and has been a regular visitor to the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). Kondajji reminded that another chief minister S Nijalingappa was also an ardent lover of the game and was himself a cricketer. At the stadium, there is a room in memory of Nijalingappa because it was during his time that the land for the KSCA stadium was leased from the defence authorities.
Kondajji said, “Cricket lovers will point out that in Mumbai which is the home of Wankhede Stadium, the gates are named after greats -- Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar. At the famous Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in Delhi, Mohinder Amarnath, Bishen Singh Bedi and Virender Sehwag are remembered.
Internationally too a few months ago, the Sydney Cricket Stadium named a gate after the West Indies batsman Brian Lara and our own Sachin Tendulkar.’’ Cricket writer Joseph Hoover said, “These three are the greatest cricketers Karnataka has produced and they deserve to have the stands named after them.”
Ruling party whip in the Council Prakash Rathod, who himself is a former Ranji star and represented India Under-19 team, said, “We will take this proposal forward.’’