Naming of stadiums: The thinking & politics behind it

WOMEN'S WORLD CUP winner Richa Ghosh may soon have a cricket stadium named after her in her hometown Siliguri. She may be a rare cricketer to have a venue named after her, at least in India. Here, we mostly have stadiums named after politicians and administrators, even businessmen.

- Tushar Bhaduri

For stadiums named after cricketing heroes, one has to turn to the Caribbean, Sri Lanka or Australia where one finds venues christened after personalities such as Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, Darren Sammy, Muttiah Muralitharan and Allan Border. The Indian women's team has already broken new ground by their cricketing exploits, but it remains to be seen whether Richa will make history of another kind, as promised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

In India, there is no shortage of stands, pavilions and gates in major stadiums named after great players. In fact, Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium is running out of stands, pavilions, gates and media centre to honour the metropolis' rich cricketing history.Across the border in Pakistan, there's even a stadium named after an erstwhile ruler of another country, Muammar Gaddafi.

In many countries, it's not uncommon to have stadiums named after sponsors and entities bidding to have their names associated with a famous arena.

Across sports, there are at least nine stadiums named after Jawaharlal Nehru, five - by a conservative estimate - after Indira Gandhi, and no fewer than 19 after Rajiv Gandhi. Considering that sports bodies are almost always headed by politicians, and governments have a big say in providing land and other permissions and facilities for constructing stadiums, it's not surprising in the least.