Cricket fever has caught up with Chhattisgarh. Be it a child, youth or the elderly, ruralite, urbanite, commoner or a leader, no one wants to remain behind in enjoying the occasion and the thrill the Veer Narain Singh International Stadium has in store for them all.
The date, April 28, 2013, will actually go into annals of sports history of Chhattisgarh as the State begins its journey in cricket with a clash between Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors at Naya Raipur's stadium which is mentioned as the second best stadium of the country after Kolkata's Eden Gardens.
Chhattisgarh government deserves appreciation for making marathon effort to bag a couple of IPl Matches this year and bring the State into limelight. State government which has waived entertainment tax running into millions of rupees, on both the IPl-6 matches, April 28 and May 1, hopes to help Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh (CSCS) to host international matches in a year or two.
It is indeed an occasion for this young State to prove its mettle in organising sports events as it has already given some top class players like Rajesh Chouhan in cricket, Saba Anjum in hockey, Rustam Sarang in weight lifting, to name a few to keep its name glowing in the sports arena of India.
As the prestigious tournament like Indian Premier league matches are at its door, the authorities of Chhattisgarh, which is still not a full member of Board of Control for Cricket in India, have ample opportunity to stake claim for not only a full membership of BCCI but also other sports facilities provided by Government of India.
Other national sports bodies and thereby give opportunity to the youths of this state to grow in this area as well.
last but not the least, on security front, special caution is needed on the part of our administration as well as security agencies given the fact that Chhattisgarh is fighting the Maoist insurgency for some decades. Though common man of this part of the country is simpler than any other people of India, but terror elements have not any particular reason for indulging in violence.
Chief Minister Raman Singh, Public Works Department Minister Brijmohan Agrawal and the officials engaged in construction of the stadium deserve kudos for completing the grand mission in record time which is likely to open new vistas in the sports sphere of this new and young State.