It was a touching felicitation organised by office-bearers of the Hyderabad Cricket Association to former India off-spinner N. Shivlal Yadav, who has taken over as BCCI president for its day-to-day administration.
The striking coincidence was not missed out among those who gathered at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday evening. It was under Shivlal’s stewardship the magnificent stadium in Uppal had come up. HCA secretary S. Venkateshwaran felt it was befitting to honour one of their “best friends for a long time, mentor who was instrumental in shaping the careers of many Hyderabadis at this venue.”
Cyberabad Police Commi-ssioner and former HCA vice-president C.V. Anand hoped that with Shivbhai taking over as BCCI chief, the game in the city would rise to a different level.
M. V. Sridhar, General Manager (Operations), BCCI, remarked that they had always wondered if they would ever see a Hyderabadi don the role of BCCI chief.
“I am glad that I am here to felicitate our good friend Shivlal on becoming the BCCI president,” he said.
Responding to the felicitation, Shivlal quipped that he had told Sunil Gavaskar (current BCCI president who would take over IPL) recently, that their partnership would continue in administration too.
“For both of us played our last Test match together – in 1987, against Pakistan. Also, when Sunny scored 10,000 Test runs at Ahmedabad in the same series, I completed 100 Test wickets. On both occasions, I got a smaller headline than him. So, I told him, even now you grab all the headlines for handling the IPL,” Shivlal said.
