Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar (PTI Photo)Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar has commended and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘promoting’ cricket while on his diplomatic visit to the Maldives earlier this week.
PM Modi tweeted a picture of him presenting a bat, signed by the entire Indian contingent currently in England for the World Cup, to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, described as an ‘ardent cricket fan’ by the Prime Minister.
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. pic.twitter.com/G0pggAZ60e
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 8 June 2019
The gift on behalf of the Indian head of state follows delegation-level talks with the Maldivian President – PM Modi’s first visit to a leader overseas since his reelection in May.
Tendulkar retweeted the Prime Minister, writing ‘thank you for promoting cricket’ and said that he hoped to see the island nation on the cricketing landscape very soon.
Thank you for promoting cricket, @narendramodi ji.
Good example of cricket diplomacy during the @cricketworldcup. Hoping to see Maldives on the 🏏 map soon. https://t.co/wek7p88828— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) 11 June 2019
Tendulkar has been on ‘diplomatic’ missions himself, having accompanied Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott when the latter visited Mumbai in 2014.
The Minister for youth, sport and community in the Maldives, Ahmed Mahloof, spoke of a ‘successful meeting with the BCCI’ and of ‘technical support from India’ in the island nation’s goal to develop cricket.
