A visit to few grounds located in Central Kashmir. It has been agreed that sports not only improve physical & mental ability of our young talent but also is an important tool to eradicate number of social evils like drug menace, misuse of mobile phones and mental depression. The Government has taken many initiatives at State and National level to promote sports viz “Sports for All” will be rewarding only by providing some basic facilities at on identified playgrounds. Cricket or hockey or football may have our priorities but other games like Badminton, Wushu, Kickboxing, Basketball, Rugby, Skipping, Running and Cycling can be an alternate option for our younger generation. Taking few simple steps by the Government in particular and the people it can be easy to upgrade the standard of our local playgrounds. Small investment on grounds in a transparent manner can encourage our younger generation towards sports activities. Availability of tap water & toilet at nearby ground is one of the concerns. I come across the following mentioned few grounds of Central Kashmir which can be converted into good playgrounds by spending few lacs of rupees.
WUTLAR GANDERBAL
An identified local playground near main market of Wutlar Ganderbal can be one of the beautiful playgrounds of District Ganderbal. Located at high altitude having very natural beautiful scenes required few lacs of rupees to upgrade into full fledged playground. In order to avert the uneven bounce and injury there is need of filling of main turf and ground surface. The ground needs low cost fencing all around which will improve the ground for other games also besides cricket. The ground is few metres below the main road needs construction of few steps for smooth entrance into the ground. The waste of whole area needs proper disposal “Swatch Abhiyan” and this hygienic issue needs to look into by the concerned authorities so that this ground cannot be utilized as a big dust bin.
MARGUND KANGAN
An identified playground near Government ITI Kangan located adjacent to the main road and a small market. This ground is also surrounded by natural beauty and is used for game of cricket. An impressive gathering is observed on the conclusion of recently concluded Cricket tournament. Dozens of teams of Kangan and other adjacent areas including Buchpora Srinagar also participated in the tournament. The water flow passing through Fishery Department, adjacent to the ground, needs installation of pipes for small areas so that balls used for sports cannot drown into this flowing water which sometime causes damage to new Cricket ball. This ground also required fencing and proposal disposal of waste by providing dust bins.
SOZIETH NARBAL BUDGAM
A big playground having concrete foot bridge needs further improvement so that the players with cricketing equipments will reach the main ground smoothly. The entrance to the ground is without proper parking and there is every possibility to turn the vehicle into the nearby river. Further, proper fencing and small foot bridge at the main entrance towards the ground will improve the playground for larger sports activities.
SHALIBUGH (GANDERBAL)
The identified playgrounds are without concrete foot bridge. There remains every possibility of injury or accident for the players visiting to the ground by passing through the weak bridge. This is also a big playground as far as area is concerned and few sporting equipments like football goal posts are installed. Large portion of area is encircled for cricket ground with cricketing turf and few Football Goal Posts are also installed. For safety & security of the players particularly our younger generation the investment of few lacs of rupees on construction of concrete foot bridge is need of an hour.
After upgradation, these grounds can be used for big tournaments organized by the Government agencies or private partnership so that people of the area, players and sports loving persons can be benefited by this natural gift of God. It has been observed on these mentioned playgrounds that environmental effect is preserved at any cost. By spending & investing few lacs of rupees in a transparent manner on these God gifted surroundings of natural beauty we can increase the visitors rush. Besides we can explore the possibilities of other sports including Cricket on these identified local playgrounds. Many such small playgrounds are located in Srinagar outskirts needs attention of the authorities for safe, secure and result oriented sports.
Shabir Ahmad Shah is Manager of Mehboob-Ul-Alam Sports and can be reached at shabir_anas@yahoo.com
