It’s all about burnishing his brand.
No one knew – or at least no one let it slip. Clearly, the officials of the Gujarat Cricket Association can do a pretty good job of keeping a secret. On the eve of the match on Tuesday, journalists were given a walk-around the reconstructed Sardar Patel cricket stadium by officials. They spoke about it in glowing terms about the stadium, the world’s largest cricket venue in terms of seating capacity. The cricket stadium is part of a sports complex that is spread over 63 acres. The stadium houses 11 centre strips, four dressing rooms with in-built gyms, a clubhouse with 50 deluxe rooms and five suites, six indoor pitches with bowling machines, two outdoor practice grounds with pavilions and a main ground lit entirely with LED lights. When full, it will seat 132,000 fans. It is, by all accounts, a fabulous facility. Also read: Motera’s Sardar Patel stadium renamed after Narendra Modi The Sardar Patel Stadium was built in 1982 and it was been refurbished in 2006 when Narendra Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister. The upgrade, many felt, was in line with the Vallabhbhai Patel’s growing status in India more than five decades after he died in 1950. The Bharatiya Janta Party has installed the freedom fighter and India’s first deputy prime minister as one of their icons as a counterpoint to Jawaharlal Nehru. The BJP claims that Patel – the man who persuaded 562 princely kingdoms of British India to join the Indian Union – actually deserved to be India’s first prime minister.
