The whole city is immersed in the colors of the festival, but despite this, security has been tightened here for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the first day of the last Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia starting on Thursday. . Prime Minister Modi had visited the 1,10,000-capacity stadium during the inauguration of the National Games last year, but this will be the first time he will be watching a Test match here after its renaming.
The visit of Modi and Albanese is part of the celebration of 75 years of friendship between India and Australia. Both the prime ministers will take a tour of the stadium in a gold-plated golf car. A local official said, “It was in this golf car that the Prime Minister took a round of the stadium during the National Games.” hopefully.
This will also be a record in India as the highest number of spectators (88000 to 90000) were present during Christmas Test matches at Eden Gardens before this. Later its audience capacity was reduced to 67000. 75000 tickets of Rs 200 and 305 have been sold. Several hoardings with photographs of the two prime ministers have been put up in the outer premises of the stadium. A small stage has been set up in front of the sightscreen where a short program will take place before the start of the match. It will be removed after the program is over.
Due to security arrangements, it was also difficult to watch the optional practice session of both the teams on Wednesday. Asked whether the presence of the two prime ministers would put additional pressure on the players, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said his focus is on performance. He said, “The Prime Ministers of both the countries are coming. It will be exciting but the focus of the players will be on the game. We will try our best to win this test.
