Ravi Gaikwad, founder of Road Safety World Series will be the first to be inducted in Hall of Fame for his contribution towards cricket and making it meaningful towards humanity.
Atlanta: The Cricket Hall of Fame (CHOF), first in the world since 1981, has endorsed the Road Safety World Series, a T20 cricket league in India played by legends of the game to create awareness towards road safety in India and around the globe.
In a meeting held virtually among the CHOF board members in the USA on Wednesday, January 11, 2023, it has also been unanimously decided that many legends playing or participating in the Road Safety World Series will be inducted in the Hall of Fame this year.
The Board also confirmed Mr. Ravi Gaikwad, the founder of Road Safety World Series, to become the first individual living in India and who will be inducted in the Hall of Fame for his contribution towards the game and making it meaningful to serve humanity with global noble cause which is impacting all of us.
The board approved a special induction ceremony, it will be the first time in its 42-year-old history, that the ceremony will be held outside the USA. In yet another first in its history, India will host the first ever Cricket Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The special induction ceremony will be held before the final match of the Road Safety World Series Season 3, which is scheduled to be held at multiple venues in India during February-March 2023. This will also be the first time when the Cricket Hall of Fame will induct more than 10 legendary cricketers in the same year and at the same time. Besides participating legends as inductees, CHOF is in process to include few other legends including female retired players from India at this event.
About Cricket Hall of Fame
The Cricket Hall of Fame is in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Founded in 1981, it is the first international cricket hall of fame in the world. Every year it hosts an induction ceremony on first Saturday of October, drawing inductees from around the world. Inductees are selected for two categories: Players of distinction or someone who has done something to advance the sport of cricket.
Since its inception several former cricket stars including Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Everton Weeks, Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Leonard Hutton, Sir Vivian Richards, Abid Sayed Ali, Alvin Kallicharran, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Ajit Wadekar, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Chetan Chauhan, Dilip Vengsarkar, Farokh Enginer, Clyde Walcott, Courtney Walsh, Desmond Haynes, George Headley, Gordon Greenidge, Greg Chappell, Hanif Mohammad, Jeffrey Dujon, Jimmy Adams, Joel Garner, Kerry Packer, Lance Gibbs, Lawrence Rowe, Dr. Michael Holding, Moin Khan, Mustaq Mohammad, Dr. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Steve Bucknor, Tony Greg and Younis Khan have been inducted in the Cricket Hall of Fame.
The Cricket Hall of Fame Museum houses many historical cricket artifacts donated by past inductees and supporters. Items include trophies, uniforms, equipment, books, photographs and articles that demonstrate the history of the sport over time. The Cricket Hall of Fame is supported by the Sportsmen’s Athletic Club of Hartford, Connecticut (Since 1963). Who Is Who in Cricket (CricWho) was launched in 2022 & CHOF is in final process to offer Largest Cricket Museum in the world where all inductees will occupy precious spots at prime wall or floor for ever in prestigious museum.
About Road Safety World Series
The Road Safety World Series is a T20 cricket event which is played between legends of eight countries—India, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka—to create awareness towards road safety in India and around the world. The Series features Bharat Ratna and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and West Indies legend Brian Lara among a host of other legendary cricketers. Sachin Tendulkar is also the Brand Ambassador of the series whereas Padma Bhushan Sunil Gavaskar is the Commissioner of the series. The Road Safety World Series has completed two seasons successfully, holding matches in different parts of the country like Mumbai, Raipur, Kanpur, Indore and Dehradun, and the third edition is scheduled to be played during February-March 2023.
The Road Safety World Series is not just a sporting event but a movement to save human lives on roads. It is an honest attempt to integrate sports for a noble cause, in this case it is cricket as it is the most popular sport in India and cricketers as looked upon as idols by many. Why India? Every year India kills a decent size European nation on its roads. Around 150, 000 people are killed and more than 450,000 people are critically injured in India in road accidents every year. One person dies every four minutes in India and out of every hundred people dying in the world, 30 are Indians.
The aim of the Road Safety World Series is to drive social change in terms of people’s outlook towards road safety. As cricket is the most followed sport in the country and sports personalities are looked up to as idols by all, a sporting extravaganza like the Road Safety World Series will work as an ideal platform to influence and change people’s mind-set towards their behavior on the roads.
