A positive and a negative for all sports lovers in Bangalore

People protest against KSCA

Its always better to start of with the positives. At a time when there has been very little developmental news in the field of sports in Karnataka, Garden City has welcomed a new looking and renovated aquatics centre in South Bengaluru.

A state of the art facility, Nettakallapa Aquatic Centre (NAC) has been renovated to provide a base for youngsters to nurture their talent while helping people from all walks of life stay healthy and fit.

NAC has been developed by KN Guruswamy Educational and Charitable trust, off Uttarahalli Main Road in Padmanabhanagar. NAC has been built on 1.5 acres of land, NAC has a 50 metre eight-lane pool and a 25 metre pool with anti-wave lanes besides a 5×10 metres toddler pool.

The centre has been designed by SEARCH foundation. The centre has an anti-skid deck-area and adjacent to the pool is a two-storey building which will have rest rooms for boys and girls and also a multi-gym.

Hope these kinds of state of the art facilities are brought in for other sports and games as well.

But as Bengaluru welcomed NAC there was another sports venue which was paving way for the influential sport of cricket. Its the Kittur Rani Chennama stadium in Jayanagar.

Around 200 former and present athletes assembled at this venue to protest against the BBMP and the KSCA (Karnataka State Cricket Association). KSCA has signed a lease with BBMP to set up six nets to conduct their summer camp. The athletics fraternity fear that if this move is not blocked, the children and athletes of other sports in the South Bangalore region will have to depend on Madhavan Park grounds in Jayanagar which is already very crowded.

Its high time that BBMP and all other government officials realise that sports is just not cricket.