All eyes on India-Aussies contest in presence of Modi, Albanese

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who flew into Gujarat on Wednesday for a two-day visit, visited the Sabarmati Ashram set up by Mahatma Gandhi, even as all eyes are on him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi being at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the city where Australia will play India in the fourth cricket Test match starting on Thursday.

Modi and Albanese were was expected to be together during Holi celebrations at the Raj Bhawan on Wednesday evening.

The two prime ministers are also expected to spend two hours at the stadium on Thursday, marking 75 years of cricketing ties between the two countries.

The stadium, the world’s largest cricket stadium, in Ahmedabad’s Motera, has a seating capacity of 1,32,000. This compares well with the earlier record of highest attendance in a single day of 91,112 during a 2013-2014 Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in an India-Australia contest.

The Gujarat government has pulled out all stops to make Thursday’s event a great success in the presence of both the Prime Ministers in Modi’s home state. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel also visited the stadium on Wednesday to oversee the arrangements.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) MPs, MLAs and even municipal corporators have been tasked to mobilise as many party workers as possible and ensure that the stadium is packed to capacity. Messages by party workers had been doing the rounds on social media asking people interested in watching the game to enrol their names before a particular date and time to see the game free of charge. The messages specifically mention that all transport arrangements have been made by the BJP.

Gujarat BJP media convenor Yagnesh Dave said that all the party leaders and workers who had been allotted passes would be at the stadium on the first day and the arrangements for the passes had been made by the MLAs and other leaders.

Meanwhile, the website that sells the tickets shows almost the entire stadium has been booked, except for certain key sections at the Pavilion End, for the first day. However, quite a few seats are available on the other days.