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| Cash strapped J&K sports ministry intends to rent out stadiums for cricket | | Our first priority is BCCI, says Babu Singh | | SANJEEV SHARMA
Jammu | Oct 22
To improve its fiscal health, the state sports ministry has mooted an idea of renting out two major sporting venues of cricket-- Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium in Srinagar and MA Stadium in Jammu for hosting cricket matches in near future.
Having best bargain in hands in the form of BCCI and its parallel league ICL the fulcrum would certainly tilt in favour of the one paying more to the cash strapped sports ministry and in all probability infrastructure starved ICL would not like to miss the opportunity.
Though Sports Minister was reluctant to speak out his mind yet he disclosed that a meeting has been fixed on October 24 at Srinagar involving the top officials to discuss the modalities.
“As of now neither the BCCI nor the ICL has approached us for the venues but we are thinking to rent out the two major sports venues for financial gains. In this regard a meeting has been called for October 24,” said the Minister of State for Sports Babu Singh while talking to SAN.
When asked whether the government is considering infrastructure starved Zee Group owned ICL for these two venues, the Minister straightaway said, “our first priority would be the BCCI and not the ICL if any such move takes place.”
However, a Srinagar based local English daily has reported the Minister as saying, “we intend to commercialise grounds in order to generate revenue to uplift sports sector in Valley and number of options are available. We have already got offers from ICL for renting out Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium Srinagar and MA Stadium Jammu for organizing rebel league matches.”
The paper also quoted the Minister as saying, “we are seriously pondering over this offer and if the deal is struck, it would be a shot in the arm for the ailing sports sector in the State. The government doesn’t have enough funds for the development of sports but the ventures like commercializing of stadiums will definitely generate lot of money.”
Since the JKCA has no knowledge of any such move by the state government, it seems that the State Sports Ministry is busy finalizing the deal with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and not the BCCI.
“We have no knowledge about any such move on part of the J&K Government nor we have been told by the BCCI to act on their behalf,” said Salim Khan, general secretary of JKCA. He added that the possibilities of a direct link between J&K Government and BCCI in this regard cannot be ruled out.
When asked that the state government has mentioned the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium in Srinagar and MA Stadium in Jammu to rent out to either BCCI or ICL, the JKCA secretary promptly remarked, “the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium is owned by the JKCA so the question of renting it out to the ICL does not arise but as far as Bakshi Stadium in Kashmir and MA Stadium in Jammu are concerned the Government is free to go ahead with its plans.” |
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