Gymkhana gets a makeover
The grand old Gymkhana ground, which has been the cradle of Hyderabad cricket for decades, is getting a makeover. The wickets at the lush green ground are being relaid to facilitate robust cricket.
The square resembles a massive grave for now, and will soon have six new wickets coming up. “The wicket has been used for a long time and is dead. Unless and until we come up with sporting wickets we cannot produce better players,” former Hyderabad player Kanwaljeet Singh, director at the Hyderabad Cricket Academy of Excellence based at the Gymkhana, told this newspaper.
“We’ll have six wickets (two each favouring the fast bowlers, spinners and the batsmen) in the middle to add to the 11 practice wickets already existing that will reduce the load on the main ground where state matches and top league games are being played,” Kanwal said.
The veteran got emotional while speaking about the Gymkhana which is under his care currently. “This is the ground that has given me and a lot of other cricketers recognition. I am pretty much attached to this place. We plan to make this one of the better grounds in the country,” he said.
The underground drainage system too is being looked into. “We are also trying to refurbish the drainage system on this ground so that rain-inter- rupted matches can restart in the shortest possible time. A lot of state matches are being played here and we want to get the maximum action possible — last season we had lost two full days of play due to rain,” he rued.