Rex Clementine in Ahmedabad
There are many women leaders who have shaped politics of their countries. We produced the world’s first female Prime Minister in Sirimavo Bandaranayake. Then, Israel had Golda Meir, India had Indira Gandhi, Britain had Margret Thatcher and Australia had Julia Gillard.
There is a famous story regarding Gillard. During the Sri Lankan cricket team’s tour of Australia in 2012, she hosted the team for tea at her residence in Canberra. Team Manager Charith Senanayake was introducing the players to the Prime Minister, and they came up to a certain all-rounder. The Prime Minister shook his hands and asked, ‘how are you keeping.’ Our man apparently told, ‘I am not a wicketkeeper, I am a fast bowler.’
Talking of women leaders, Calcutta’s Chief Minister is a lady – Mamata Banerjee. She is serving her third term and hugely popular here in Bengal and at the age of 68 she is tipped as a national leader.
From Calcutta where Australia and South Africa played a thrilling semi-final, we head to Ahmedabad, the city that will host the final. It’s relatively a long three hour ten minute flight. Strange. From Bombay to Colombo it takes you only two and half hours.
Ahmedabad is the de facto headquarters of Indian cricket at the moment. The IPL final, marquee Test matches and now the World Cup final, all big cricket games are slotted to Ahmedabad.
It has been the case always. Bombay used to be the capital of Indian cricket. Then when Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya ruled the sport, it shifted to Calcutta with Eden Gardens getting all the important games. Next could be Madras.
Rupa Gurunath calls the shots at Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. She is the daughter of N. Srinivasan, India Cements owner and former ICC boss.
Coming back to Ahmedabad, Sri Lanka played a Test match here in 2009, where Mahela Jayawardene produced a stunning effort. His 275 is still the highest score by an overseas batsman in India, quite remarkable indeed as India have been playing Test cricket for 89 years now.
It was also here in Ahmedabad that Mr. Michael Tissera’s Ceylon team beat the Indian team captained by Tiger Pataudi. It was an unofficial Test match. Since then, Sri Lanka have never overcome India in a Test match.
That was of course before the ground underwent reconstruction. The modern ground is an architecture marvel and it’s the largest stadium in the world able to host 138,000 fans.
The ground is named after the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi. He is expected to be present at the finals.
Ahmedabad is the capital city of the state of Gujarat. The other main cities of the state are Rajkot and Baroda. Although most Indian states have just one First Class team, Gujarat has three First Class teams – Saurashtra, Baroda and Gujarat. The reason for that is the state is so vast and there are so many cricketing talents.
The Prime Minister is not the only reason why Ahmedabad gets all the prominent games. Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Indian Board is also from this part of the world.
Jay Shah is the son of India’s interior Minister Amit Shah. At the age of 35, Jay has come a long way in cricket. Although he may not have many fans back in Sri Lanka, he is supposed to be a very efficient person and it is no doubt he is ICC President in waiting.
Under his watch, the Indian board has got a new facelift and a lot of things in Indian cricket are changing. No doubt the likes of Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma deserve a lot of credit for making Indian cricket so formidable.
So does Jay Shah. His greatest contribution to the sport has been to look after the administration part and not to meddle with the cricket affairs leaving it to the experts. That’s where folks back home have faulted. They have meddled with everything from selection to fitness standards.
The selectors had a very good plan to make any player who failed a fitness test ineligible for selections. Our administrators went and vetoed it and introduced pay cuts for those who failed fitness tests treating them with kids’ gloves. Results have been devastating. Praising Jay Shah maybe not a very popular thing back home, but that’s the reality. Let’s learn from him. Here’s hoping that we have our own Jay Shah.