"CCI can honour Raj Singh later," says president Mittal

Badal Mittal took time off to speak to MiD DAY about the preparations for the Test and why the club is not in a position to do something to perpetuate the memory of his predecessor Raj Singh during the Test

It's been a busy Saturday evening for Cricket Club of India president Badal Mittalu00a0 but he doesn't look flustered about hosting the India vs Sri Lanka Test match in a few days' time. He is proud to state that he is the first non-cricketer president of the CCI (Vijay Merchant, Madhav Apte and Raj Singh Dungarpur came
before him).

CCI president Badal Mittal

He took time off to speak to MiD DAY about the preparations for the Test and why the club is not in a position to do something to perpetuate the memory of his predecessor Raj Singh during the Testu00a0
Excerpts from a chat:
u00a0
Sachin Tendulkar said a gate should be named after Raj Singh. Is that going to happen?
The pavilion is called J N Tata Pavilion. It is in our bylaws that anything to do with the pavilion, we have to ask Tata Sons. Once their reply comes, then only we can do that (name the gate).

Don't you feel the club could have done something in his honour during the Test match since it was his dream to see the resumption of Test cricket here?
We were thinking of (doing something) but unfortunately, we are not able to.

But the Test match was a good chance to do it...
It is not necessary that the Test match is the only chance because we are now going to host Indian Premier League matches. The Wankhede Stadium is under repairs so we will have an opportunity to do it.

One does not see a photograph of Raj Singh in the clubhouse...
I think we have a photograph of him in our Board room (to his credit, Mittal has retained the photo frames of Raj Singh in his cabin). We should find a proper place to keep his photograph.

Any special guests for the match?
No. But we are releasing a book called CCI, The Home of Cricket. The Chief Minister will release the book. We wanted Sachin Tendulkar to release the second copy but we are told that as per ICC rules, players cannot mingle in public before the Test.