Ask someone in Kerala about the Santosh Trophy or I M Vijayan and the odds are that you would get an eloquent speech that would also include the epic 1973 Santosh Trophy final win at the Maharaja’s College ground in Kochi, the 1992 comeback in Coimbatore and the most recent triumph at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata where they grabbed their sixth title win.
Football is a sport etched into the heart and soul of this state. Fans throng the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in yellow–the much adored ‘Manjappada’—to watch the Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League year after year, despite their team’s underwhelming performances.
Cricket in Kerala
But it wasn’t always this way in this state. History says Kerala took to cricket before they embraced football. In the 1850s, Colonel Sir Arthur Wellesley brought the game to the shores of Tellicherry, where the British had a fort to monitor spice trade from the town. The imposing structure had garrison soldiers in plenty who engaged in the sport. Cricket in the nondescript town of Tellicherry is perhaps the first recorded history of cricket being played in India.
The Tellicherry Town Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs to be established in the country and became a hub of cricketing activity in the 1860s. Football came to Kerala in the 1890s, way after cricket did. But it struck a deeper chord with the locals given the simplicity in rules and game play. That does not mean there were no cricket fans in the state. A prime example would be the formation of the Murugan Cricket Club.
In 1967, youngsters from the Agraharams of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple got together for their love of cricket and inspired a lot of others to take up the sport through their club. In 1977, the Murugan Cricket Club was affiliated to the Thiruvananthapuram District Cricket Association and rose to prominence. It was this club that kick-started the Celestial Trophy Cricket Tournament, among the most prestigious tournaments in the sport in Kerala.
While there were inspirational tales of cricketing heroes, few went beyond the Ranji Trophy. It has been the story of cricket in Kerala with the state producing few International cricketers. Even with S Sreesanth and now, Sanju Samson making a name, Kerala’s biggest contribution to the sport today is perhaps the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram with a seating capacity of 42,000.
The Greenfield International Stadium: Thiruvananthapuram’s tryst with cricket
Two years back, the stadium bore witness to the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championships which India won. With the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi revamped to a football-only stadium, the Sports Hub in Karyavattom emerged as one of the best cricket stadiums in the country. While designed to host both cricket and football games–the playing arena is constructed in line with FIFA regulations as well as ICC norms–in 2016, the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) signed an agreement with the Karyavattom Sports Facilities Limited to take the stadium on lease until November 2027.
A full-on eco-friendly stadium surrounded by greenery and rain water harvesting facilities, the Sports Hub is among the better cricket stadiums in India. But again, it wasn’t this stadium that brought International cricket to Kerala shores for the first time, although that happened in the same city three decades ago. The University Stadium in Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram witnessed action in the 1980s.
When International cricket came to Thiruvananthapuram
There is an unofficial history of the West Indies International side playing a game in this stadium in 1961 against a local team. In 1981, the England side visited the ground to play a friendly One Day game against the Kerala Chief Minister’s XI.
Soon after in 1983, Clive Lloyd’s West Indies came to the state capital to play a friendly game against the India under-22 team. Led by Manoj Prabhakar, the India U-22 side created a spark when the 18-year-old WV Raman–who would later go on to become a first-class batting legend and a Test cricketer–picked up the wicket of Vivian Richards cheaply. However, the match itself wasn’t completed as the tourists left in a jiffy to catch a flight to their next venue to play India.
In 1984, Thiruvananthapuram hosted Australia in an ODI—the first International game in the city—but halfway through the second innings, the game had to be abandoned following heavy rains. A full ODI took a further four years as West Indies and India played the seventh ODI of their series here in 1988. Even with Kris Srikkanth’s century, India lost by nine wickets as Phil Simmons—the present coach of the West Indies team–recorded a maiden ODI hundred.
It took 29 years and a stadium with state-of-the-art facilities for International cricket to reach the state capital again, although the state itself hosted quite a few memorable International ODIs and the IPL at the stadium in Kochi. Last year against New Zealand, a rain-affected T20I was played before West Indies themselves came down to play the final ODI in a bilateral series. That ODI turned out to be a lop-sided affair with India bowling the visitors out for a meagre 104 and chasing the target down in less than 15 overs for the loss of just one wicket.
Recent history and venue details
The ground was host to 14 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 matches this season with the Kerala team playing in four of them and cricket is becoming a rage once again in the city. West Indies are back in the city–this time for a T20I–and will play the second T20I of the series against India here on Sunday. The frequency of games at the Sports Hub suggests it could be among the next big venues in the country. There is no dearth of passionate fans in the state either with 95% of the tickets sold out two days before the game.
While spinners did a decent job in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament here this year, the pitch is expected to be batting-friendly for this game with a good clay surface prepared, according to Jaffer Sait, the acting President of the Kerala Cricket Association. Two central pitches and four practice wickets have been prepared for the game. The average first innings total in a T20I here is only 117 while it drops to 106 in the second innings, so a high-scoring encounter would mean rewriting history. That said, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali this year, Kerala racked up 191 against Tripura driven by Sachin Baby’s half-century and the visitors responded with 177.
While rain has affected the previous T20 International here, and could play a role on Sunday too, the organizers are well-prepared this time. “We are completely prepared for rain. Three super-soppers are ready. The drainage is so good that if it rains before the scheduled start, we won’t have any problem. We have enough ground staff to cover the ground if it all rains intervene,” Sait said, as reported by TOI.
Cricket flavour is well and truly back in the city and all it needs is a super-engrossing T20I game and more International matches in the future. With the kind of facilities on offer, that is a distinct possibility in the near-future.
