Life comes full circle at the Wankhede — Ravi Shastri, mother Lakshmi share emotional moment For Lakshmi Shastri, the unveiling of the Ravi Shastri Stand at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday was not merely an honour bestowed on her son. It was a full-circle moment — one that brought back memories of train rides, packed stands, and the quiet pride of watching a young boy from Mumbai carve his place in Indian cricket.
“It means a lot to me. I feel so honoured to be present here. I would come to the Wankhade Stadium to watch him play, though I did not watch his six sixes that day (in 1985). And I never dreamt that one day I would stand before the stand that has been named after him,” Lakshmi told Sportstar moments after the ceremony, with her daughter-in-law Ritu and granddaughter Alekha patiently waiting for her.
“This is with God’s grace, and I do believe Ravi’s devotion, dedication, most importantly, his self-belief that he will achieve what he dreamt of. So may he go from strength to strength, extremely proud of him.”
Her words carried the weight of decades. An ardent cricket follower since the 1960s, Lakshmi has been pivotal in pushing Ravi to the limits since his formative years. Yet, Thursday’s honour had a special emotional pull, particularly because Dr Jayadritha Shastri, Ravi’s father and one of his earliest supporters, was not present, having passed away in 2007.
“Only regret is his father is not present who encouraged him. But I am sure our blessings are with him,” she said.
Lakshmi also recalled one of her fondest memories at the Wankhede, an incident her son elaborated on during his speech.
“That he mentioned already, that when we came here to watch (the Test against England in 1984), Mr. (S.K.) Wankhade was present at that time. And he welcomed us, and he took us right up to his gallery to watch, which we thought was a great gesture on his part. We will never forget that,” she said.
Ravi Shastri, during his address, expanded on that cherished moment from 1984, when he was batting in a Test against England at the Wankhede.
RELATED | Stand in honour of Ravi Shastri unveiled at Wankhede Stadium
“We had Mr. Wankhede. And he was such a cricket lover. I remember my father and mother walking up the stairs to go up into the stand. And someone told him, ‘That’s Ravi’s parents’. And I was batting on fifty. This was the Test match against England (in 1984). He called them, took them up and put them in the prime seats to watch me get a hundred,” Shastri recalled.
It was a memory that tied the past to the present — from a young cricketer’s parents being escorted to the best seats to watch a milestone, to their son now having an entire stand named after him.
Lakshmi also reflected on where Thursday ranked among her son’s achievements. “It’s one of the memorable days. The most memorable will be his six sixes and his winning the Benson & Hedges Championship, when he was crowned Champion of Champions. That will forever remain in my memory,” she said.
Shastri, too, acknowledged the role his family played in his journey.
“To my family that’s present here, without their support, I don’t think I would have made it. My mother, 86, is even more obsessed with the game (than anyone else). She has watched Test cricket from the 1960s, right from (Gary) Sobers at the CCI to Clive Lloyd, and (Vivian) Richards, and her favourite was Neil Harvey. And she was a pest. You had to score every game.”
The honour held added significance for Shastri. The stand bearing his name now occupies almost the same area where, as a 12-year-old, he had watched his first Test match — against New Zealand in 1976 — as a spectator.
“The only disappointment, my father. He is not present here today, but he watched almost every game from the Garware Pavilion at that time. But he will be upstairs, he will be proud that this has happened.”
Nearly five decades later, with his mother watching from below and memories of his father lingering above, the unveiling of the Ravi Shastri Stand became not just a tribute to a cricketer, but a celebration of a family’s journey intertwined with Mumbai cricket.
Published on Apr 10, 2026
#Life #full #circle #Wankhede #Ravi #Shastri #mother #Lakshmi #share #emotional #moment
For Lakshmi Shastri, the unveiling of the Ravi Shastri Stand at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday was not merely an honour bestowed on her son. It was a full-circle moment — one that brought back memories of train rides, packed stands, and the quiet pride of watching a young boy from Mumbai carve his place in Indian cricket.
“It means a lot to me. I feel so honoured to be present here. I would come to the Wankhade Stadium to watch him play, though I did not watch his six sixes that day (in 1985). And I never dreamt that one day I would stand before the stand that has been named after him,” Lakshmi told Sportstar moments after the ceremony, with her daughter-in-law Ritu and granddaughter Alekha patiently waiting for her.
“This is with God’s grace, and I do believe Ravi’s devotion, dedication, most importantly, his self-belief that he will achieve what he dreamt of. So may he go from strength to strength, extremely proud of him.”
Her words carried the weight of decades. An ardent cricket follower since the 1960s, Lakshmi has been pivotal in pushing Ravi to the limits since his formative years. Yet, Thursday’s honour had a special emotional pull, particularly because Dr Jayadritha Shastri, Ravi’s father and one of his earliest supporters, was not present, having passed away in 2007.
“Only regret is his father is not present who encouraged him. But I am sure our blessings are with him,” she said.
Lakshmi also recalled one of her fondest memories at the Wankhede, an incident her son elaborated on during his speech.
“That he mentioned already, that when we came here to watch (the Test against England in 1984), Mr. (S.K.) Wankhade was present at that time. And he welcomed us, and he took us right up to his gallery to watch, which we thought was a great gesture on his part. We will never forget that,” she said.
Ravi Shastri, during his address, expanded on that cherished moment from 1984, when he was batting in a Test against England at the Wankhede.
RELATED | Stand in honour of Ravi Shastri unveiled at Wankhede Stadium
“We had Mr. Wankhede. And he was such a cricket lover. I remember my father and mother walking up the stairs to go up into the stand. And someone told him, ‘That’s Ravi’s parents’. And I was batting on fifty. This was the Test match against England (in 1984). He called them, took them up and put them in the prime seats to watch me get a hundred,” Shastri recalled.
It was a memory that tied the past to the present — from a young cricketer’s parents being escorted to the best seats to watch a milestone, to their son now having an entire stand named after him.
Lakshmi also reflected on where Thursday ranked among her son’s achievements. “It’s one of the memorable days. The most memorable will be his six sixes and his winning the Benson & Hedges Championship, when he was crowned Champion of Champions. That will forever remain in my memory,” she said.
Shastri, too, acknowledged the role his family played in his journey.
“To my family that’s present here, without their support, I don’t think I would have made it. My mother, 86, is even more obsessed with the game (than anyone else). She has watched Test cricket from the 1960s, right from (Gary) Sobers at the CCI to Clive Lloyd, and (Vivian) Richards, and her favourite was Neil Harvey. And she was a pest. You had to score every game.”
The honour held added significance for Shastri. The stand bearing his name now occupies almost the same area where, as a 12-year-old, he had watched his first Test match — against New Zealand in 1976 — as a spectator.
“The only disappointment, my father. He is not present here today, but he watched almost every game from the Garware Pavilion at that time. But he will be upstairs, he will be proud that this has happened.”
Nearly five decades later, with his mother watching from below and memories of his father lingering above, the unveiling of the Ravi Shastri Stand became not just a tribute to a cricketer, but a celebration of a family’s journey intertwined with Mumbai cricket.
Published on Apr 10, 2026
![Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that. Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America, a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States.Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. In the book, Rothenberg gives an inside account at how American soccer went from the days where leagues were not organized and fizzled quickly to some of the success we have today with leagues like Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the United Soccer Leagues. He details his firsthand knowledge of what it took for the United States to host a successful soccer tournament at the 1984 Olympics, how the nation won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, and how he was able to organize the federation to get everything done and push the game forward. He recently sat down for an interview on the USA Soccercast, and in that interview, he mentioned that the rise in popularity of the game wasn’t based on one big moment, but a sustained buildup of momentum.“[American soccer] sort of grew when I was starting in 1990,” Alan Rothenberg, former U.S. Soccer president and CEO of the 1994 World Cup, said in an interview for the USA Soccercast. “I had a glimpse of it back in the 70s when we had a team in Los Angeles ,and obviously the Cosmos set the world on fire at that time with Pelé and [Franz] Beckebauer…you had Giants Stadium. So there were those glimpses of what the future could hold. But as we started to build the soccer federation, our [1994] World cup team and the World cup organization, it just started to accelerate. So there wasn’t one ‘a ha!’ moment.”Soccer Meets America takes the unique yet unexpected path of professional soccer in the United States andn gives the story some definition. Through people like Rothenberg, we see that the history is shaped by chance, persistence, and communities that kept the game alive long before it found mainstream recognition. Starting with the sport’s deep roots in immigrant communities in the 1920s, each episode of the docuseries explores soccer on a personal and professional level. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the series features a variety of influential figures in American soccer and aims to resonate with new and old fans of the sport alike.But there’s also the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, which will be different from what it was in 1994. “Well, obviously we’re starting from a different baseline,” Rothenberg said. “We started at virtually zero back in [1990], and now we’re starting from level 60 or 75…so the dramatic consequences will not be the same as they were after 94, but I think it’s going to be a huge spike in interest in the sport at all levels.”To grow the history, you must learn from it. And Soccer Meets America gives you a review of America’s soccer history and strengthes the foundations from which the sport’s culture and passion were created. As we approach the World Cup, that knowledge will be essential to craft the legacy that will carry long after the tournament ends. #Vox #Creative #Roku #debut #docuseries #history #American #soccer](https://i3.wp.com/platform.sbnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/gettyimages-2273772608.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.740350081171%2C100%2C78.519299837658&w=1200&ssl=1 "Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that. Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America, a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States.Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. In the book, Rothenberg gives an inside account at how American soccer went from the days where leagues were not organized and fizzled quickly to some of the success we have today with leagues like Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the United Soccer Leagues. He details his firsthand knowledge of what it took for the United States to host a successful soccer tournament at the 1984 Olympics, how the nation won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, and how he was able to organize the federation to get everything done and push the game forward. He recently sat down for an interview on the USA Soccercast, and in that interview, he mentioned that the rise in popularity of the game wasn’t based on one big moment, but a sustained buildup of momentum.“[American soccer] sort of grew when I was starting in 1990,” Alan Rothenberg, former U.S. Soccer president and CEO of the 1994 World Cup, said in an interview for the USA Soccercast. “I had a glimpse of it back in the 70s when we had a team in Los Angeles ,and obviously the Cosmos set the world on fire at that time with Pelé and [Franz] Beckebauer…you had Giants Stadium. So there were those glimpses of what the future could hold. But as we started to build the soccer federation, our [1994] World cup team and the World cup organization, it just started to accelerate. So there wasn’t one ‘a ha!’ moment.”Soccer Meets America takes the unique yet unexpected path of professional soccer in the United States andn gives the story some definition. Through people like Rothenberg, we see that the history is shaped by chance, persistence, and communities that kept the game alive long before it found mainstream recognition. Starting with the sport’s deep roots in immigrant communities in the 1920s, each episode of the docuseries explores soccer on a personal and professional level. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the series features a variety of influential figures in American soccer and aims to resonate with new and old fans of the sport alike.But there’s also the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, which will be different from what it was in 1994. “Well, obviously we’re starting from a different baseline,” Rothenberg said. “We started at virtually zero back in [1990], and now we’re starting from level 60 or 75…so the dramatic consequences will not be the same as they were after 94, but I think it’s going to be a huge spike in interest in the sport at all levels.”To grow the history, you must learn from it. And Soccer Meets America gives you a review of America’s soccer history and strengthes the foundations from which the sport’s culture and passion were created. As we approach the World Cup, that knowledge will be essential to craft the legacy that will carry long after the tournament ends. #Vox #Creative #Roku #debut #docuseries #history #American #soccer")
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