Cricket South Africa arrange ‘biggest ever’ welcome for the Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team received the biggest ever official reception from the Cricket South Africa, on Monday night, after the final batch of the Indian squad arrived in the country on Sunday 12th December. Gerald Majola, CEO Cricket
South Africa expressed his thoughts during the function. He said,
“The official welcome reception for the Indian team is the biggest ever for any team that had visited South Africa,”
The welcome function was attended by the cricketers of both the sides, as well as the board officials of both, CSA and BCCI. Also gracing the event was the president of Cricket South Africa, Mtutuzeli Nyoka and Consul-General of India Mr.
Vikram Doraiswami. The CSA president, in his welcome speech, praised the achievements of the Indian cricket team over the past few years and said that the tourists deserve the title of the world’s number one team.
“This is a team (India) that has over the last two years swept all before them. I think that by all accounts, they deserve the number one status in Test cricket,” he said.
Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar received special praise of Nyoka calling him ‘the most decorated’ player of recent times and hailed the contribution of the thirty-seven-year-old, to the game. Nyoka said,
“I want to say thank you to you (Sachin) for the many years of wonderful memories that you have given us. You are a true champion, a true hero. You are one of the most decorated cricketers playing today. I salute you as a sportsman, as a cricketer
and as a human being,”
With the Rainbow Nation celebrating 150 years of Indian defrayal in South Africa, the CSA president also praised the cricketing relations between the two countries. Nyoka said that Cricket South Africa is a vibrant sports body just because
of its strong and healthy relationship with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), “…I hope our mission of friendship and brotherhood continues for a very long time,” Nyoka added further.
Indian Consul-General Doraiswami, in keeping with the cheerful spirit at the welcome reception, said that they always believed their team as the world’s number one team and it is good that other boards have finally recognized it officially.
India, after hammering Australia and New Zealand in the last two months, must be eager to script another memorable series win in South Africa but their record in the Proteas grounds is not as such encouraging. The Indians could not win a series in their past
four tours of South Africa and have won only one off 12 Tests.