Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has appealed to the BCCI in a fun way that UP should get at least four teams in the IPL.
The reason behind this is the huge population of the state and the growing sports infrastructure. He said this at the closing ceremony of the UP T20 League at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, where he also cheered the players.
Yogi ji said with a smile that a big state like UP will not be able to manage with just one team. Currently, Lucknow Super Giants is the only IPL team that joined in 2022.
Yogi’s Appeal to BCCI: “UP Deserves More Teams”
He talked about repeatedly requesting the BCCI and gave the reason – a population of 25 crore people.
He believes that this will provide more cricket talent and the state will become a powerhouse of cricket.
His exact words were: “See, my belief is that all our players should get a platform within UP. And Uttar Pradesh is giving us very good international players in every event [All our athletes should get a platform here in UP. The state is producing good international athletes in many events].”
He then laughingly added: “I will repeatedly tell the BCCI too that Uttar Pradesh is such a big state – with a population of 25 crore, there is only one team. There should be at least four teams from Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh should definitely be given this opportunity [I will appeal to the BCCI because UP is a very big state with a population of 25 crore and we have only one IPL team – we should have at least four teams].”
Stadium Revolution in Uttar Pradesh
Yogi also highlighted that the state government is building full stadiums in every district and mini stadiums in every block. New stadiums are coming up in cities like Varanasi, Ayodhya and Gorakhpur.
On Twitter, he posted: “@UPGovt is continuously encouraging emerging players. I am fully confident that with strong infrastructure, the players of the state will perform better in the field of sports and games. Heartiest congratulations to all the players and best wishes for a bright future!”
So now it will be interesting to see whether BCCI will listen or not, for now UP has already produced many international cricketers like Suresh Raina or Kuldeep Yadav.
