Ravi Shastri Stand Unveiled at Wankhede Stadium

Ravi Shastri Stand Unveiling. Image: Revsportz

Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai

In his first Test, in New Zealand in 1981, Ravi Shastri batted at No. 10. A year-and-a-half later, he was promoted to open the innings in Pakistan, against a marauding Imran Khan. Sunil Gavaskar, then India captain, preferred him over the specialist openers in the squad. Shastri’s response was a century. He would go on to play 80 Tests and 150 ODIs, emerging as one of the premier all-rounders in the world in the 1980s. He was the Champion of Champions at the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia.

On Thursday, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) honoured him by naming a stand after him at Wankhede Stadium. Maybe, it should have been done a long ago. Better late than never.

“My first visit at this venue was in 1976 — an India versus New Zealand Test,” said Shastri at the programme. “I watched it from the North Stand, a place where cricket is understood. I saw the great spin quartet. I saw Glenn Turner and the great Richard Hadlee. Little did I know that five years later I would be facing him in New Zealand.”

The cricketer-turned commentator narrated his journey at Wankhede — winning an attritional Ranji Trophy final against Delhi, six sixes in an over off Tilak Raj, a couple of game-turning partnerships in Tests and tonking Australia fast bowler Bruce Reid to the roof of the stadium. He listed the three biggest ‘khadoos’ in Mumbai cricket — Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Shastri himself. The two legends were on the stage, along with India’s T20 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav.

On the day, the MCA also named stadium gates after three stalwarts of Indian cricket — Dilip Sardesai, Eknath Solkar and Diana Edulji. “Sunil Gavaskar supported women’s cricket all along,” said former India women’s team captain Edulji. “Once at the nets, I had beaten Parthasarathy Sharma (former India opener). Sunil Gavaskar was standing behind the nets and he started to sing ‘Dhunndo, Dhundo Re Sajna’.”

The MCA under it’s president Ajinkya Naik dished out a classy programme.

Also read Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis: ‘I’m sure we will come up with the best stadium in the country’

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The post Ravi Shastri Stand Unveiled at Wankhede Stadium appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



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