Kolkata: The Aditya Group on Monday launched Bengal’s first ever private stadium at the Aditya School of Sports Arena at Kadambagachi, Barasat.
The stadium will have facilities for playing multiple sports like cricket and football and even indoor sports like chess, badminton and table tennis.
A Residential Elite Sports Academy was also launched at the campus where students from all across the country, besides studies would also be able to pursue a career in sports.
It was also announced that this stadium would host the iconic, ‘Diego vs Dada’ match on October 5. A chat show was also hosted by sports historian Boria Majumder which saw the presence of Indian women’s team spearhead Jhulan Goswami, former Mohammedan Sporting footballer Dipendu Biswas, former wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta, former East Bengal footballer Mehtab Hossain along with Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Sujit Bose.
Speaking on Maradona’s visit to the city, Deep recalled his childhood where he had a huge poster of the Argentine maestro in his room.
He said, “When I was a child, I didn’t have posters of Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, my hero but I had a huge Maradona posted in my room. It would be a huge honour meeting him.”
Jhulan too added that she always selected the number 10 jersey for herself as she was always a Maradona fan.
“I watched my first football World Cup in 1990 where Argentina lost to West Germany in the finals. My entire family was upset and it’s incredible how an Argentine could impact our lives,” said Jhulan.
She also added, “All my jerseys, tunics and shirts from my childhood had the number 10. Even my first India jersey was a number 10 one.”