Hyderabad, October 27: YOU could be sitting at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium for the inaugural ceremony of the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Lalit Modi, the organising secretary of IPL, was so impressed with the ground, wicket and other facilities during the final of the Champions League tournament, he promised
Shivlal Yadav, vice-president of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) of conducting the opening ceremony at this sprawling stadium.
Apart from Modi, former Australian captain Ian Chappell also praised the stadium.
He reportedly said that it was one of the best stadiums in the world. Yadav took Chappell around the stadium. “He was very impressed with the ground and also the dressing rooms for the players. He said the dressing rooms were one of the biggest in the world,’’ said Yadav.
Meanwhile, curator Y L Chandrasekhar and his men have been receiving accolades from the cricketers and officials for producing good wickets for the tournament. According to G Vinod, president of HCA, Dave Gilbert, the chief executive of New South Wales, was all praise for the wicket. Vinod said the groundsmen had a wonderful job under the leadership of Chandrasekhar.
Yadav and D S Chalapathi, joint secretary, were relieved that it was incident- free tournament. “We were worried about security but the State police did a marvelous job,” said Yadav.
The HCA is all set to host the fifth day/night one-day match between India and Australia, to be held here on November 5.
The ticket sales are likely to begin from next week in the 40,000 capacity stadium.
–Agencies