Revamped Sardar Patel Stadium renamed Narendra Modi Stadium

In a move that caught many by surprise, the Motera cricket stadium or the Sardar Patel Stadium, hailed as "world's largest cricket ground", in Ahmedabad was renamed the Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday.

The rechristening was revealed after President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the stadium along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, moments before the stadium's debut international test match between India and England.

The name change was first witnessed after President Kovind virtually inaugurated the stadium and the screen flashed a virtual plaque with the words, "Inauguration of NARENDRA MODI STADIUM AHMEDABAD."

The inauguration plaque had the names of President Kovind, Amit Shah, his son Jay, secretary of the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI), Reliance President and Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani, his son Dhanraj, vice-president of Gujarat Cricket Association, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, among others, engraved on it.

Sources said that even the officials of Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) were surprised. Moments after this, at the entrance of Gate 1 of the stadium, a hoarding which said: "Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave Narendra Modi Stadium" showed up. This entrance was meant for audiences who had lined up to enter the stadium to watch the first international match being held here.

While inaugurating the stadium, President Kovind said, "It is a matter of pride for us that the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium has become the world’s largest cricket stadium with a capacity of 1.32 lakh spectators."

He had earlier laid the foundation stone of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave which aims to provide various sports facilities which will be spread across 236 acres.

On the occasion, Shah said that a new world-class sports complex will be coming up in Naranpura (his old constituency), together with the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave and Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera in Ahmedabad city, will be equipped to host any international event, including the Olympic games, and the city will become the "sports city of India".

The name change didn't go down well with the Opposition Congress with the party's Gujarat President Amit Chavda tweeting, "During Congress regime, name of Sardar saheb (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) was added to Ahmedabad Cricket Stadium, which has been mischievously changed to Narendra Modi Stadium, which will not be tolerated by Gujarat. This is not just an insult to Sardar saheb as well as Gujarat."

The stadium has been refurbished at a cost of over Rs 800 crore. In a statement, the GCA recently said that the world's largest cricket stadium was the dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was his idea as President of GCA & CM of Gujarat in 2014 to demolish the over 25-year-old Motera stadium completely and build in its place a new one which would be the largest in the world with best of class facilities.

On Wednesday, the refurbished stadium, which has a seating capacity of 1.10 lakh, debuted by hosting an international test match between India and England with the pink ball in the Day/Night match.

It was also on this day in 2020, that former US President Donald Trump was hosted here by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an event called "Namaste Trump" which was attended by over a lakh people.