It will be a proud moment for Srikar Bharat when he takes the field for India for the 2nd India vs England Test Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on Friday. Bharat, the local boy, who started his cricketing journey from in very ground will become the second cricketer from Andhra to play Test cricket for India in his home ground.
In fact, only three Andhra players have gone on to play Test cricket for India – MSK Prasad, Hanuma Vihari and now Bharat. Even though CK Nayudu – the first-ever captain of the Indian team was from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, he played for the Central Provinces-Berar and led Holkar to eight Ranji Trophy finals in nine years. He would go on to represent Andhra only during the fag end of his career.
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Back to Bharat now, the 30-year-old has come a long way from being a ball boy here in 2005 for the India vs Pakistan ODI to being on the cusp of walking out as an Indian Test player on the same ground, and ACA (Andhra Cricket Association) have planned a small felicitation ceremony for the cricketer.
“Yes, we have planned a felicitation ceremony for Bharat,” ACA secretary Gopinath Reddy told Cricketnext.com. “It will happen here in the stadium itself on the Upper Floor of the South Stand. We requested a time for 2nd Feb, but the Indian Team management has given time for the 1st, so we will he doing the felicitation on Thursday.”
Invitation for Jay Shah
The ACA has also invited BCCI apex council members including BCCI Secretary Jay Shah for the Test match. BCCI President Roger Binny had confirmed his arrival on the 3rd and will be in attendance on the 4th (third day of the Test match) as per Reddy.
“We have invited BCCI Secretary Mr Jay Shah ji and the President and Vice president when we all met at Hyderabad recently. We requested their presence here at Vizag and we also hope to lay the foundation stone for an indoor net here. Even though we have not got a confirmation, we are hopeful that he will come here” Reddy added.
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Free Tickets for School Children and Club Cricketers
Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium has a capacity of 29,000 and will be hosting its third-ever Test – the first after 2019. India have tasted success on both the previous occasions – beating England in 2016 and South Africa in 2019. The Crowd had turned up for the first Test in Hyderabad and Reddy hopes the 2nd Test will also bring in spectators in numbers.
“Because it’s a Test match we have set the daily ticket prices from Rs 100 to Rs 400 and the season ticket to 1500,” said Reddy.
Like in Hyderabad, free tickets will be provided for school children. “We have allocated 2000 tickets in the K Stand to college students and school students who will be in their uniforms or show their identity card. We have also planned to hand out more than 2500 tickets each day for the cricketers who is playing for club cricket across our five districts, said Reddy, adding, “Till now on online we sold around 16,000 each day”.
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