“Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium”, the name itself takes us to Delhi, cricket matches, centuries and records made by the cricketers. It is a cricket stadium which is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. It was established in 1883 and is also the second oldest international cricket stadium which is functional in India. The ownership is held by Delhi District Cricket Association and it has a capacity of 41,820 people!
DDCA decided to change the name of the stadium and name it as Arun Jaitley Stadium in the memory of its former president and officially the event took place in which the name of Feroz Shah Kotla was changed to Arun Jaitley stadium on 12th September 2019.
About Arun Jaitley
Arun Jaitley was an Indian politician and attorney, a BJP member who served as Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. He held the cabinet portfolios of Finance, Defence, Corporate Affairs, Commerce and Industry, and Law and Justice in the Vajpayee and Modi government. He was a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court as well. He decided not to join the cabinet due to health issues. Due to prolonged illness, he died on 24th August 2019.
His connection with Cricket
He was the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association in 1999. He basically wanted to establish a cricket culture and his priority was cricketers and cricket. He said that Delhi brought some great cricketers and stadium would reflect their achievements. He wanted to uplift the status of stadium among cricket lovers. The plague which was already prevalent in the stadium was nepotism and corruption which he dreamt of eradicating. Due to his efforts and positive energy, he did what he wished to. He issued strict instructions and procedure for selection. No doubt, it is justified that the stadium is renamed after him due to his efforts. Apart from it, he was a medium-pacer as well in his college days which obviously connected him to cricket. He was the DDCA chief for 13 years.
The training and position of cricket improved during his tenure and after a massive gap of 16 years, Delhi won the Ranji Trophy in 2008. This was just possible due to his efforts and the procedure he proposed for selection which was purely based on merit and skills. Even Bishan Singh Bedi, former India captain, called Jaitley as administer with cricket “closed to his heart”.
Name changing Event
So, on 12th September 2019, a grand ceremony took place with all the major politicians, cricketers, and popular images. It was a glittering event and Amit Shah; Home Minister digitally inaugurated the renamed Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium. Even the family of late finance minister was present over there.
Pavilion Stand named after Virat Kohli
Another big development that took place was that a new pavilion stand was unveiled which is named after Virat Kohli, Indian cricket team captain, who became the most successful Indian captain in Test cricket.
DDCA president Rajat Sharma told, “When I decided to name a stand-in honour of Virat Kohli, I told this first to Arun Jaitleyji. He told me this is a good decision because there is no better player than Virat in world cricket.” The unveiling ceremony took place in the Weightlifting Hall of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Kohli thanked DDCA and BCCI for dedicating a stand to him in the stadium. The DDCA Annual Honors 2019 also honored promising cricketers with mementos for their performances.
The event was started with dance performance and then DDCA President took over the stage and praised Arun Jaitley, Virat Kohli, and Amit Shah. He also revealed about the new initiative by DDCA to start two academies for poor kids who will be trained in these academies. Even Kapil Dev, Ajay Jadeja were present on the occasion and both appreciated the idea of stand in the name of Virat and the decision to change the name of the stadium.
Hope, FEROZ SHAH KOTLA STADIUM that is now ARUN JAITLEY CRICKET STADIUM will continue to bring amazing cricketers and records with the motive that Jaitley always promoted that is playing with heart and raising the status of cricket!
