The preparations are underway in full flow for the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony that is set to take place on January 22 in Ayodhya. The 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony rituals have begun today (January 19) and it will continue till January 21. Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust has taken care of all the arrangements including the main event and for the guests who are set to attend the much-awaited event 72 hours later. While it was reported that special arrangements are set to be made for more than 1000 guests, a final official comprises of around 506.
Among them a few are sportspersons that include prominent cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni among others. India head coach Rahul Dravid is also part of this list alongside Ravindra Jadeja, legendary Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Virender Sehwag and Mithali Raj. It is understood that Kohli has reportedly taken special leave to attend the consecration ceremony on January 22 ahead of the England Test series but it is still not clearly known if the other players will be attending the event.
Notably, Rohit, Jadeja and Dravid all will be part of the team for the England Tests and it remains to be seen if they will also be travelling to Ayodhya only three days before the opening Test match of the five-match series. Among other sportspersons who have been invited and are part of the official list are India's golden boy Neeraj Chopra, legendary Chess player Vishwanathan Anand, Saina Nehwal, Leander Paes, PV Sindhu, PT Usha.
For the unversed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lead to Pran Pratishtha ceremony on January 22 in Ayodhya. He is also scheduled to visit Kuber Navratna Tila within the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Complex apart from unveiling the bronze statue of Jatayu.
Here's the full list of sportspersons: PT Usha, Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, Leander Paes, MS Dhoni, Mithali Raj ,Neeraj Chopra, Pullela Gopichand, PV Sindhu, Rahul Dravid, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Saina Nehwal, Sourav Ganguly, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Viswanathan Anand, Karnam Malleshwari, Kalyan Chaube, Devenda Jhanjadla, Bhaichung Bhutia, Bachendri Pal, Prakash Padukone,
