BHOPAL, 20 August 2005 — Indore, the commercial capital of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, which earned notoriety twice and was on the verge of losing its status as an international cricket venue is all set to have a new state-of-the-art cricket stadium soon.
The new stadium, which is 80 percent complete, will be owned by the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, (MPCA), and not the Indore municipal corporation, which owns the earlier one.
Realizing that a straight bat alone is not the answer, political adversaries have shrugged off their rivalry to do their bit for Indore. “What is heartening is that in spite of their political differences, they came forward to help us out,” says former Indian cricket selector Sanjay Jagdale. Politicians like Arjun Singh, Vikram Verma, H.R. Bhardwaj, Maya Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Laxmi Narain Sharma and Praful Maheshwari have all pitched in with money from their Member of Parliaments’ local area development funds for a new stadium.
While Federal ministers Arjun Singh and Bhardwaj, Congress MP Maheshwari and the BJP’s Verma contributed Rs 1.5 million each, Verma’s colleague Maya Singh donated Rs 2 million. Sharma, also a BJP MP, contributed Rs 0.5 million.
The initiative, Jagdale says, came from Scindia, the MPCA chairman, who wrote to all MPs from the state to help out with money. The across-the-divide effort to help Indore retain its status came after a match with Sri Lanka was abandoned and another incident in 2001.
On Dec. 25, 1997, an India-Sri Lanka tie had to be converted into a 25-overs-a-side exhibition game after the two captains, Arjuna Ranatunga and Sachin Tendulkar, refused to carry on with the One-Day International, which was barely three overs old.
While the 25,000-plus crowd expected a game, match referee A.M. Ebrahim of Zimbabwe had no choice but to agree with the two captains. The problem was not only with the wicket.
