Old name of Arun Jaitley Stadium: Why Feroz Shah Kotla stadium renamed?

Old name of Arun Jaitley Stadium: After the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, this stadium is the second-oldest functional one in India.

During the first T20I of the ongoing South Africa’s tour of India at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma won the Toss and elected to field first on what looks like an excellent pitch to bat on.

With team India playing without their experienced stars in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and KL Rahul (to name a few), wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant has become the second-youngest Indian to make his captaincy debut in the T20 format.

The stadium is hosting its seventh T20I match, with teams batting first winning three of them, while teams chasing having won thrice as well.

9️⃣4️⃣9️⃣ Days Later 👉🏽 International Cricket returns to #QilaKotla 🫶🏼

Dilli, excited to watch #INDvSA at the Arun Jaitley Stadium? 🏟️🤩 pic.twitter.com/b0qJDUrvsw

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) June 9, 2022

Old name of Arun Jaitley Stadium

Located at the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, the stadium was established in the year 1883 and was named as the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, for having been situated near the Kotla fort.

However, on August 27, 2019, the DDCA (Delhi District Cricket Association) decided to rename the stadium in honour of late Arun Jaitley, the former Finance minister of India and DDCA president.

The decision to rename the stadium was announced after three days of Mr.Jaitley’s unfortunate demise and was ultimately officially renamed at a function that took place on September 12, 2019.

The present DDCA president Rajat Sharma, while explaining the reason behind renaming the stadium said, “It was Arun Jaitley’s support and encouragement that players like Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra, Rishabh Pant and many others could make India proud.”

The decision to rename the stadium was met with a fair share of criticism as well, with former India cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi even going on to request the DDCA to remove his name from the spectators’ stand, which was named after him in the year 2017.

Bedi was visibly unamused by the DDCA’s decision to erect Jaitley’s statue at the stadium, and has also accused the latter of charges of nepotism during his 14-year reign as the DDCA president.