BCCI urged to set up CoE at Alur

The Karnataka State Cricket Association threw open the Platinum Jubilee Pavilion at their flagship venture in Alur situated on the outskirts of the city.

This is third such facility that the association, headed by outgoing president Anil Kumble, has inaugurated this year including the ones in Mysore and Hubli. Both these cities hosted four-day first-class matches between India ‘A’ and West Indies ‘A’ recently. 

The pavilion at Alur, which is situated in between two grounds -- Silver Oval and Gold Oval -- is built in a such a way that it can serve as dressing room for two sets of matches simultaneously. Inaugurating the pavilion here on Tuesday, former KSCA President KM Ramprasad, the man instrumental in procuring the 30-acre land for KSCA during SM Krishna’s regime, lauded the efforts of Kumble and his team but wished they had decided to continue after so many developmental works throughout the state.

 “It’s easy to buy a land, but building a house is much more difficult,” said the former pacer, who is now wheel-chair bound after hurting his back following a fall at the Chinnaswamy stadium a few years ago.

 “I haven’t seen the facilities in other places in the state, but having seen this (at Alur), I am mighty impressed. I don’t think there is such an infrastructure anywhere in the world where three matches can be played simultaneously in the same complex,” he gushed during a function graced by Karnataka stalwarts -- off-spinner EAS Prasanna, leggie BS Chandrashekar and stumper Syed Kirmani. Crediting Ramprasad and his team for acquiring the land, Kumble said the main focus of his tenure has been to build infrastructure. 

“I am glad to state that all parcels of land bought or leased during Ramprasad’s tenure have been fruitioned and are now ready host cricket matches including internationals in Hubli and Mysore. This is the third of the pavilion buildings dedicated to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of this institution and three more such buildings are coming up in Shimoga, Raichur and Belgaum,” he pointed out. The former India captain said they have the designs ready for many more projects and hoped the next set of office bearers will complete those tasks. 

“The designs to build the main pavilion block, state of the art players’ rooms, dining, conference, accommodation, office, gym and indoor cricket centre are ready and should be taken up by the next team that will serve this institution.”There is also a proposal by the KSCA to BCCI to make use of the facilities at Alur. 

“This land was bought along with the BCCI to set up the NCA. BCCI was supposed to use 16 acres and KSCA 15 acres. As things transpired, KSCA has utilised all the available space now. But we have proposed to the BCCI to come up with their Centre of Excellence here and that will be used by both NCA trainees and Karnataka cricketers,” he explained.