Visakhapatnam: Marking the historic occasion of maiden test cricket match in Vizag, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu unveiled a pylon on the premises of Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy ACA-VDCA cricket stadium at PM Palem before India took on the visitors England in the maiden test cricket match in Vizag and second of the test series on Thursday morning.
The first cricket test in Vizag city as well as in Andhra Pradesh started in Vizag under the loud cheers of cricket buffs after Mr Naidu unveiled a pylon.
Expressing immense pleasure over a test cricket match happening at last on Andhra soil, Mr Naidu told newsmen that he is very happy as Vizag is gaining much popularity in sporting and he has spent sometime watching the inaugural session of the match. Mr Naidu said that Vizag had hosted many international sporting events and now the test is being played in the the City of Destiny and Vizag would become a sports hub in the state.
The recent two major international cricket events, Test cricket match in Vizag and the just-concluded India-West Indies Women’s T-20 series at Mulapadu area near Vijayawada has proved that Andhra Pradesh will be hosting more international cricket events in the coming days, he added.
The Chief Minister presented mementoes to members of English and Indian teams and to former stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar, V.V.S. Laxman, Ravi Shastry, Sanjay Manjrekar, L. Sivarama-krishnan, Anil Kumble, Naseer Hussain and Mike Artherton and chairman of BCCI senior selection committee M.S.K. Prasad, the only cricketers from AP played for India in test matches also.
Vice-president of BCCI and general secretary of ACA Dr Gokaraju Ganga-raju, president of ACA D.V.S.S. Somayajulu, president of VDCA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju and others were present.
Responding to a question on sporting infrastructure in the state, Mr Naidu said that the TD government was committed to develop 19 sports grounds in the state and also to set up four more stadiums (Tiru-pati, Amaravati, Kakinada and Srikakulam) to produce talented sports persons. He also said that AP will be hosting 37th National Games in 2019.
