THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The word ‘idleness’ has no place in Sreenivasa Pai’s dictionary. The octogenarian who spends most of his days playing, exercising and cooking, says age is just a number that can be defied.
The Kochi-based Sreenivasa is the oldest active player, at age 82, of Lawn Ball games in India. He has made Kerala proud by winning his first-ever medal at the recently concluded Lawn Bowls national championship held in Ranchi from February 5-11.
“Lawn Bowls, which is played on a large scale, in other Commonwealth countries, is only catching up in India.
Though the game has been around in Kolkata since the 1880’s, it has only gained popularity in Delhi, Jharkhand and Assam in the past few decades. In Kerala, it is just four to five years old,” he says.
The game, though not physically over-strenuous, is played for eight hours at a stretch.
Each game consists of four rounds and requires the player to bend several times to roll the wood (bowls) closer to the jack (a small white ball).
The team which bowls the wood closer to the jack compared to their opponents gets the maximum number of points.
“It is more like a mind game, quite similar to chess. The game requires a lot of concentration. One has to be alert enough to understand how to manouevre one’s wood closer to a jack,” says Sreenivasa.
The former tea export company officer began playing in 1982 at Kolkata where he became the member of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.
“It was very convenient for me. My office hours ended by 6 p.m., after which I was free. The floodlights at the Golf Club remained switched on till 8 p.m., because of which I could spend two hours playing daily,” he says.
The hard work bore fruit. By 1990, Sreenivasa was selected to represent India in the Commonwealth Games held at Auckland in New Zealand. He, along with the rest of the players, would also go on to play at the 1992 World Cup in England and the 1993 Pacific Games in Canada.
By then, Sreenivasa was a regular at the national games where he represented Bengal. He also started playing for clubs. “I became so addicted to the game, that I started teaching my children. My second son is a professional player who plays for Bengal now,” says Sreenivasa.
His younger son Gopinath Pai won a medal at the 35th National Games in Kerala held in 2015, the first time that Kerala witnessed a major event in this game.
Gopinath’s wife Sujatha and sister-in-law Shantheri Pai, along with niece, Nandita Pai, also played at the national games.
At present, a handful of boys and girls, like Adrin Mathew, Abhi Varghese, and Gopika Nair, are coached by Sreenivasa. “The coaching is free. My aim is only to promote the game.
Even today, there are not many players who play the game. There are also no coaches. It is my passion to ensure that enough people are trained to play the game and also represent Kerala in the future games,” he adds.
Sreenivasa is now gearing up to train the athletes for the upcoming 36th National Games to be held in Goa in November, 2017.