Shinde rewards Team India with ₹11 crore

Alongside, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis suggested the government must consider building a new state-of-the-art cricket stadium with a crowd capacity of one lakh

MUMBAI Chief minister Eknath Shinde on Friday announced ₹11 crore prize money for Team India that lifted the T20 World Cup last week. Alongside, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis suggested the government must consider building a new state-of-the-art cricket stadium with a crowd capacity of one lakh.

HT Image

Four Mumbai cricketers, including skipper Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal were felicitated on Friday evening by the state government at the Vidhan Bhavan. Deputy chairperson of Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe said, “Probably this is the first time that cricketers are being felicitated in the premises of Vidhan Bhavan.”

“While we have the historic Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai needs a bigger and modern stadium that can accommodate a crowd of one lakh. Our chief minister will extend all the help to MCA and BCCI,” said Fadnavis.

Not missing an opportunity to indulge in symbolism, Fadnavis said that in both cricket and politics one needs a captain that can guide the team towards victory. He added, while he was apprehensive on Thursday watching the huge turnout of fans on Marine Drive, “Mumbai police handled the situation very well”. In keeping with Fadnavis’s spirit Shinde jested, just as cricket players took wickets in politics “we as a team of 50 MLAs took the wicket two years back”.

Rohit Sharma said India’s win was the result of team effort and not just of four players. Speaking about the famous catch, Suryakumar Yadav said that “the ball had simply landed in my hands”. Sharma quipped, “Had it not landed, you would have been grounded for the next match”. This evoked laughter from legislators.