Expect a visual treat and grand extravaganza when India take on Australia in the World Cup 2023 final at the colossal Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. BCCI, on Saturday, released a full list of events and celebrities that would grace the final at the world’s largest cricket stadium. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence during the final on Sunday, a grand air show by the Indian Air Force, two former World Cup-winning captains Kapil and Dhoni watching from the stands with a bevy of who’s who from the world of entertainment and politics in attendance, the grandeur will be unmatched.

The Suryakiran Indian Air Force airshow will take place after the toss at 1:30 pm IST. It is likely to be a 15-20 minute show. The preparations for the same were done with a successful demo on Thursday. During the first innings drinks break Coke Studio’s Gujarati singing sensation Aditya Gadhavi of ‘Gotilo’ fame will perform.

The event would get grander during the innings break. Bollywood music composer Pritam, singers Jonita Gandhi, Nakash Aziz, Akasa Joshi, Tushar Joshi and Amit Mishra will entertain a 1.3 lakh crowd. 500 dancers from Mumbai are expected to gyrate to popular Bollywood numbers.

Possibly for the visiting Australian team and also for the greater TV audience across the globe, it would be a taste of India’s soft power with cricket being a tool.

The BCCI will also present a special blazer to all World Cup-winning captains from 1975 to 2019. West Indies legend Clive Lloyd (1975 and 1979 World Cup-winning captain), India’s Kapil Dev (1983 World Cup-winning captain), Australia’s Allan Border (1987 World Cup-winning captain), Australia’s Steve Waugh (1999 World Cup-winning captain), Ricky Ponting (2003 and 2007 World Cup-winning captain), India’s MS Dhoni (2011 World Cup-winning captain), Australia’s Michale Clarke (2015 World Cup-winning captain), England’s Eoin Morgan (2019 World Cup-winning captain) have all been invited. Some of them, like Morgan and Ponting, are already in India as part of the commentary team.

However, there was no clarity on whether Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain, Arjuna Ranatunga and Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning captain, Imran Khan were invited or not.

Like every India match in this World Cup, it will be an ‘Ocean of Blue’ in the stands and on the streets.

The counterfeit industry had a boom time, and all the No. 18s and 45s — jersey numbers of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma respectively — will be whipped away from the street corner in a flash.

Little ones, their dads, moms, granddads and the pesky neighbour, everyone will ‘Bleed Blue’ come Sunday.

This will certainly be an ‘Evening to Remember’ but only time will tell whether Rohit and his men can make it an ‘Evening to Savour’.