Shimoga offers glittering welcome back to cricket
Pacer Akshay excited to play Ranji tie in hometown
Taking first-class cricket to smaller centres has been a favourite talking point amongst administrators, but very little has actually been done to follow up on that talk. Things are surely changing as far as Karnataka cricket is concerned, at least.
The picturesque Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering ground, brilliantly maintained and providing a wonderful setting for a cricket match with greenery all around and located in the middle of a massive college campus, will welcome first-class cricket back to Shimoga after a long gap of 32 years when Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh do battle from Wednesday.
Shimoga last hosted a Karnataka vs Kerala Ranji Trophy game in 1979, on a matting pitch at the Nehru stadium, which had also staged the only other first-class match here, Karnataka vs Andhra in 1974. How things have changed since!
The JNCCE is a sport-loving college, one of 40 educational institutions run here by the National Education Society. What started off as a venue with one turf pitch has mushroomed into an excellent facility with five centre strips, practice pitches on one side of the ground, and a swank, Rs 1 crore pavilion that is almost complete – the roofing on the first floor still needs to be done – with well equipped dressing rooms.
“We were desirous of hosting a Ranji Trophy game, and the KSCA told us last year that everything was in place except for the dressing rooms,” a proud JNCCE principal Dr R Srinivasa Rao Kunte said. “The management immediately sanctioned a budget for the same, and here we are today!”
Nearly 10,000 people are expected to throng the ground to watch the game. Festoons and banners adorn different parts of the City, most of them welcoming the teams, but some dedicated exclusively to SL Akshay, the fast bowler from Shimoga who has made his way to the State team.
“It’s a great honour for me to play in front of my home crowd,” said the 24-year-old, fully recovered from a hamstring injury. “I learnt my early cricket at this ground, and I feel fortunate to be able to play in front of people that have watched me grow. There is only a sense of anticipation, but there is no pressure on me.”
Microphones atop auto rickshaws have been blaring messages about the match, a big-sized crowd turned up to watch the teams practice on Tuesday, and there was even the unusual sight of a sniffer dog and a bomb detector at a first-class – and first-rate – venue as the local organisers are determined to leave no stone unturned.
“It’s good to come here, all the arrangements have been impeccable,” observed Suresh Raina, the Uttar Pradesh captain. “I am all for taking first-class cricket to the smaller centres. It invariably means a lot of people will come and watch the match, watch international players in action, and it is good for the players too if people turn up for a first-class match.”
Party time in Shimoga, then. And given the prequel, it’s no more than the City deserves.
