The first of the three T20 matches of the ongoing India-Bangladesh bilateral series will mark the return of international cricket to Gwalior after 14 years
Team Clarion
GWALIOR – The right-wing Hindu Mahasabha has intensified its protest against the India-Bangladesh T20 match scheduled in this Madhya Pradesh city on October 6.
As the Indian and Bangladesh cricket teams arrived here on Wednesday for the return of international cricket in the city after 14 years, the Hindu Mahasabha members launched a protest, demanding that the historic city not host the match at any cost.
Around 15-20 Hindu Mahasabha members wielding black and saffron flags, were reportedly detained by the local police, for holding the protest rally without permission of the local administration and police.
Hindu Mahasabha’s national vice president Jaiveer Bhardwaj criticised the “duplicity” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The BJP regime at the Centre is adopting double standards. While on the one hand, it claims to be the champion of Hindutva cause in the country, on the other hand, the government has allowed the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to host the Bangladesh cricket team, conveniently forgetting how a genocide of Hindus is being carried out in the neighbouring nation over the last few weeks. The Hindu community in Bangladesh is under attack, its places of worship, and residential and commercial properties are being targeted and women are being raped by jihadis. Still the Bangladesh cricket team is being hosted in India. We won’t allow the match to happen in Gwalior, which is the Balidan Bhoomi of Veerangana Rani Laxmi Bai,” he was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.
Bhardwaj, who led the protests, added that a call has been given to the entire trader fraternity in Gwalior to observe Lashkar Bandh on the day of the match (October 6). “We’ll go from door to door over the next three days to ensure the success of the bandh in Lashkar (the heart of Gwalior city). We’ll ensure whatever we can to appeal to the Gwalior residents to boycott our cricket team’s match against a nation, where Hindus have been unimaginably targeted by jihadis,” he added.
Importantly, the first of the three T20 matches of the ongoing India-Bangladesh bilateral series will mark the return of international cricket to Gwalior after 14 years.
Way back in 2010, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar became the first male cricketer to score a double century in One Day International (ODIs) by hitting an unbeaten 200 against the Proteas at Gwalior’s Captain Roop Singh Stadium. That was the last international cricket match hosted in the historic city.
Fourteen years later, Gwalior’s long wait for hosting an international cricket match is set to end on Sunday, as the BCCI has chosen the newly constructed Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium to host the match.
The BCCI shifted the venue from Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh to Gwalior as up-gradation and renovation work is being carried out at the former venue.
