State gets world-class cricket stadium

DEHRADUN: The first international cricket stadium of the state was inaugurated at Raipur Sports College here today

Updated At : 06:41 AM Dec 17, 2016 IST

Chief Minister Harish Rawat and other dignitaries launch the mascot of the 38th National Games on the occasion of the inauguration of the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun on Friday

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 16

The first international cricket stadium of the state was inaugurated at Raipur Sports College here today.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat inaugurated the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in presence of Sports Minister Dinesh Aggrawal, MP Rajiv Shukla and other dignitaries. The logo and mascot for the 38th National Games, which is supposed to be held in 2018, was also launched.

Rawat congratulated the people and sports fraternity of the state for the achievement. “The Sports Department has done a great job. We aim at promoting Uttarakhand as the sports hub and our government has laid a strong foundation for it. We hope that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will value our efforts and give us a chance to organise major sports events in near future,” he said.

Rajiv Shukla, MP and chairman of the Indian Premier League, assured the state of organising Ranji Trophy matches in Uttarakhand from the next season. He also announced that a team of experts would come to inspect the stadium so that IPL and international matches can be made possible here.

Earlier, the ceremony began with a friendly match between Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. The team of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) defeated Uttarakhand by 28 runs. Star players — Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla — played for UP. Suresh Raina didn’t play the match, but shared some light moments with his fans. Later, the event ended with a musical performance by Indian idol fame Abhijeet Sawant.

Bird Monal is mascot of National Games

The logo and mascot for the 38th National Games, 2018, was also launched.

The state bird, Monal, has been chosen as the mascot for the games. It has been named ‘Mauli’. The state logo for national games will be a view of mountain, forest and river with an athlete. The theme of the logo is ‘Play in Paradise’.

UPCA thrashes Uttarakhand

The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) beat Uttarakhand by 28 runs in a friendly match during the opening ceremony of the cricket stadium. The UPCA elected to bat first after winning the toss and scored 119 runs in the allotted 15 overs. Akashdeep Nath scored the highest 39 runs for the UPCA, whereas Sunny Rana bagged 3 wickets for the Uttarakhand team.

In reply, Uttarakhand lost quick wickets in initially. The team could score only 91 runs in 15 overs for the loss of eight wickets. Anuj Rana scored 21 runs and Praveen Kumar took two wickets for the UPCA team.