HCA to erect statues of Laxman, Azhar

HCA to erect statues of Laxman, Azhar

The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has decided to erect bronze statues of VVS Laxman and Mohammad Azharuddin, two of the city’s most accomplished cricketers, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium. “We planned this about a month ago. We are honouring Laxman for having played more than 100 Tests and Azhar for finishing just one shy of that milestone,” HCA secretary MV Sridhar told DNA on Friday. The plan, Sridhar added, will be executed within the next three months. No cricket association in India has ever honoured a player in this fashion. So what prompted the HCA to take this route? Well, Cricket Victoria (an arm of Cricket Australia) has erected statues of many great homegrown cricketers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Readers may recall that a huge bronze statue of Shane Warne was unveiled at the iconic ground during India’s disastrous tour of Australia. “We thought it would be nice to honour them in this manner. Each statue will be nine-feet tall and cost Rs 10 lakh. In Laxm-an’s case, the statue will show him acknowledging the crowd with a bat in one hand and a helmet in the other. It’s a moment captured from the historic 2001 Kolkata Test against Australia. Azhar will be shown executing his trademark on-drive,” Sridhar informed. Meanwhile, the north stand of the stadium was named after Laxman at a low-key ceremony on Wednesday. Neither Laxman nor any player from the Indian team was present.