Former Vadodara corporator Bandish Shah has sought a civic plot for Indian spinner Radha Yadav to establish a cricket academy. The request comes days after the Gujarat government proposed handing over municipal land to former cricketer and MP Yusuf Pathan.
Shah told reporters on Friday that a proposal had been submitted to the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). However, the civic body’s standing committee chairperson, Varsha Vyas, said she was unaware of any such request.
There is a collective vision to promote Vadodara as a “sports city”, he said, adding that the municipal corporation has land designated for sports purposes under its Town Planning (TP) schemes.
“We have submitted a proposal for a plot for Radha Yadav, which will help promote cricket among local athletes and further elevate Vadodara’s reputation. She currently trains at an indoor cricket academy. However, proper training requires an outdoor stadium,” he said.
Shah drew a distinction between the two proposals: Pathan’s request concerns residential land, while the plot sought for Yadav would be used to develop a cricket practice ground for children.
“We intend to develop the facility at our own expense and will also pay rent to the municipal corporation. We are not seeking any handouts. Our goal is to ensure that, through an international cricketer, the children of Vadodara gain access to international-standard facilities. The VMC’s stand has been positive, though the administrative process naturally takes some time,” he said.
Vyas said she had no information about a request from either Shah or Yadav.
“However, any proposal from her (Yadav) will be duly considered,” Vyas added.
The proposal for Pathan
The Gujarat government’s proposal concerning Pathan follows his move away from the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress nearly four months ago.
Pathan, elected from West Bengal’s Baharampur on a TMC ticket in 2024, joined a group of 20 party MPs who broke away and merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The NCPI subsequently joined the BJP-led NDA in Parliament.
Pathan had been seeking a 978-square-metre residential plot located next to his family home in Vadodara’s Tandalja locality since 2012, but faced years of legal hurdles and encroachment notices from the civic body.
As per the new proposal, 500 square metres of the VMC-owned land will be “gifted” to Pathan, while the remaining 478 square metres will be offered at a 45 per cent concession, valued at 55 per cent of the rate fixed by Vadodara Urban Development Authority (VUDA) Valuation Committee.
The dispute began with Pathan’s request to purchase the adjoining land in 2012. The VMC initially agreed, but the state government rejected the sale in 2014.
After his election to the Lok Sabha in 2024, the civic body issued a notice directing him to remove the alleged encroachment and vacate the plot.
Pathan challenged the notice in Gujarat High Court, arguing that the matter was more than a decade old and that the civic body should have issued a show-cause notice before asking him to clear the alleged encroachment. He also contended that the land belonged to the municipal corporation and not the state government.
The High Court upheld the state government’s rejection of his allotment request. Pathan appealed before a division bench, but withdrew the appeal in August this year after his lawyer said he was pursuing the claim under a state government policy.