Good cricketing infrastructure a distant dream

MANGALURU: Come December 12 and this coastal city will enter 60th year since it last hosted a first class

cricket

match - a

Ranji

match involving Mysore and Kerala.

It was from December 12 to 14, 1959, that this match was played at Nehru Maidan between the two sides that saw the hosts win by an innings and 97 runs. A lot of cricket has been played across the globe and Namma Kudla is yet to see full-fledged first class cricket action since then.

Incidentally, the 1959 Ranji action was one of the three and last Ranji match played in this city. Failure by local cricket administrators to set up a turf wicket, a must to host a first class match and move by cities such as Hubballi, Shivamogga and Mysuru to do so has meant that all cricketing action is taking place far away from the city where the first Ranji match in then Mysore - post reorganisation of states on linguistic lines - was first played in 1956.

This last match is nostalgic for cricket aficionado K B Pai who not only witnessed this tie, but also has preserved score sheet of that historic match. “This was a match that had B C Alva, K M Ramprasad, S Krishnamurthy and P R Ashokananad representing Mysore. It was also a match that saw Mangalore (as it was known then) born U S Kini turn up for Kerala for simple reason that he obtained his birth certificate from Manjeshwar,” Pai told STOI.

Then city municipal council president K S N Adiga, MLA Manel Srinivas Nayak were part of the organising committee, Pai recalls. The committee had set up mini three-tier gallery to seat around 5,000 people, he said, adding building a bigger gallery then was practically impossible as it required lot of wooden planks and poles for the purpose. The teams were put up at Keerthi Mahal, a hotel that abutted the present Hotel Moti Mahal, he added.

While the city did host a 3-day relief match for victims of Koyna earthquake that devastated Maharashtra in 1968, Pai regrets that a city that has given cricketing world the likes of Budhi Kunderan and K L Rahul is yet to have cricketing facility that will ensure more such talent emerge and blossom here rather than be forced to migrate to Bengaluru for the sake of their cricketing careers. “We have failed abjectly on this front,” Pai rued.

President of DKCA Mahabala Marla, an affiliate club of

KSCA

that runs the cricketing show locally, admitting to these shortcomings said the city is now closer than ever before in getting a turf

ground

of international standards at Mary Hill. “We are in the final stages of getting 10 acres of land at Mary Hill bordering Kavoor-Derebail villages,” Marla, former mayor, said, adding this ground could be a reality before 60 years of the last Ranji match is over.

Incidentally, this city has toyed with various locations for setting up either a cricket ground or a full-fledged cricket stadium with KSCA, too, making efforts in this regard. The locations that were scouted included industrial area land abutting APMC yard at Baikampady and Bondel. It requires at least 25 acres of land to set up an international standards stadium. The Mary Hill land could house a cricket pavilion, swimming pool and nets, Marla said.