THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The long wait is over and first class cricket match has come back to the capital city. Assam faces Vidarbha in the prestigious Ranji Trophy at St Xavier’s College-KCA Cricket Ground in Thumba here starting Thursday. It will be for the first time that Thiruvananthapuram is hosting a first-class cricket match in 18 years.
The four-day match will be the first of two matches to be played here this season -- the other being a high-profile clash between Delhi and Jharkhand from November 5 to 8 which will feature the likes of Unmukt Chand, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, and Saurabh Tiwary.
The clay and red soil pitch prepared for the game is expected to assist both the batsmen and bowlers, just like it was prepared for the C K Nayudu Trophy under-23 national championships held here last year.
The last first-class match held in the city was on December 24, 1998, when Kerala led by K N Ananthapadmanabhan hosted Tamil Nadu at the Agricultural College Ground, Vellayani. Tamil Nadu defeated Kerala by nine wickets in the four-day match.
Though the home side is not playing this time around, the district cricket authorities are hoping that the two matches that will be played here will be a treat to the city’s sports enthusiasts.
Venue - Overview
St Xavier’s College Ground has the honour of being the first cricket ground in Kerala to feature as many as nine match-ready wickets. Of these, two in the centre of the field will be made available for first-class matches like the Ranji Trophy while the rest will be used for district, college, school and club-level matches.
The stadium has been constructed by the Kerala Cricket Association at a cost of Rs 6 crore of which the playing field cost Rs 4 crore while the rest of the money was used to provide supporting infrastructure. The construction took two years and the venue was thrown open in March 2015.
The ground is fashioned on the likes of cricket venues in England and Australia where crowd seating has been arranged by landscaping instead of constructing pavilions. Bermuda grass was used in the construction of these seating areas as well as playing surface.
The ground, which is a stone’s throw away from the Arabian Sea, has been compared to the ones in the Caribbean by cricket experts.
The ground has a slope of 60 cm such that the play can be restarted within 15 minutes of a rain stoppage. Sprinklers have been installed in six sectors of the ground to water the surface