New Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, a major cricket stadium in India, has been renamed to honour the late ex-president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
Arun Jaitley, who led the DDCA from 1999 to 2013, passed away at the weekend. The 41,000-seat venue will now be known as the Arun Jaitley Stadium, with an official renaming ceremony to take place on September 12.
The ceremony will also see one of the stands at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium renamed after current Indian captain Virat Kohli.
The renaming refers to the stadium itself, with the ground to continue to be known as the Feroz Shah Kotla.
“It was (because of) Arun Jaitley’s support and encouragement that players like Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra, Risabh Pant and many others could make India proud,” DDCA president Rajat Sharma said, according to the Times of India newspaper.
Gambhir, who represented the Indian national team from 2003 to 2018, told the Times of India: “It’s a good thing that the stadium is being named after Arun Jaitley, because he was instrumental in giving Delhites a modern cricket stadium.
“However, I would have been much happier if this was done when he was still alive, so that he could have seen it himself. That would have been the most fitting tribute.”
Jaitley also served as Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs for the Indian government from 2014 to 2019.
Image: Paramgoel
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