KOZHIKODE: Thalassery Maidan has over two hundred years of rich cricketing history believed to date back from 1790’s when Lord Arthur Wellesley, later known as Lord Wellington who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, introduced the game in this coastal town. One of the oldest cricket clubs in India, Thalassery Town Cricket Club was born in this ground in 1860 and Kerala tasted their first ever Ranji Trophy victory in 1963 too from here.
However, the ground is now in a dilapidated condition with the pavilion turned out as a dumping place for waste materials. The ground also lacks proper toilets and water facilities. The sports lovers are now looking for the ongoing renovation work worth Rs 4 crores taken by the Uralungal Labour Co-Operative Society, for the revival of sports in the city which contributed many number of national and international players in Cricket, Hockey and Football. The work is under the supervision of sports and youth welfare department.
However the spat between the revenue department and municipality over the ground is still not settled with both claiming ownership of the ground. Though the ground is under revenue department, that exist only in papers. The Thalassery Municipality is claiming its authority over the land and is charging fee from people and organisations for conducting events there.
“The civic body, without any authority, is collecting money from public, but not doing any renovation work. All documents show that the ground belongs to revenue department. Only thing they did was to give the issue a political overtone,” said Thalassery Sub Collector Navjot Khosa.
Admitting it as revenue land, Thalassery Municipal Chairman C.K Rameshan said that the municipality was looking after it from 1950s onwards. “Now the renovation work has been started using Rs 4 crore,” he said. “After the renovation, we will decide who should own it,” the Chairman added. However the renovation work is funded not by the civic body but from Thalassery MLA’s and state government funds.
