Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promoting cricket during the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019.
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His remarks come after PM's gesture of gifting a cricket bat signed by the Indian team to "ardent cricket fan" and Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Saturday.
"Connected by cricket! My friend, President @ibusolih is an ardent cricket fan, so I presented him a cricket bat that has been signed by #TeamIndia playing at the #CWC19," Modi had tweeted on Saturday.
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This gesture came after Modi held delegation-level talks with Solih after touching down in the island-nation on Saturday afternoon. This trip to the Maldives was the Prime Minister's first overseas visit after being re-elected.
He was accorded a grand ceremonial welcome upon his arrival in the Maldives, which included a performance by a dance troupe donning the traditional Maldivian attire.
Speaking to ANI, Maldives' Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment of Maldives, Ahmed Mahloof said, "We received a lot of support from the Indian govt in area of youth and sports. We had a successful meeting with BCCI and we expect they will help us develop cricket here. India's support would mean a lot to us."
"Like Afghanistan Cricket Board was adopted by BCCI, we have the expectation that BCCI will help us in the area of cricket. Soon we will work out a strategic plan for sports with technical support from India," he added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)