The New Indian Express 05.11.2009
Corporation playgrounds beach Marina cricketers
CHENNAI: Of the 228 Corporation playgrounds that were offered as alternate venues to play cricket to the youth who were barred by the police on Tuesday from playing on the Marina, most are unfit for any game forget Cricket. In fact, one of them doubles up as a lorry- parking lot! While 90 per cent of Corporation playgrounds cannot be used to play Cricket because of their size and shape, the rest have no space left in them for playing a game like Cricket.
Playgrounds located at May Day Park, Gopalapuram, Turn Bulls Road, Nandanam Extension, Government Hospital and Shenoy Nagar already get full attendance from the local ‘crowd’ and that leaves no room for the Marina oustees. A close look at Corporation playgrounds across its 10 zones revealed that many are small in size and local Sachins and Sauravs had already occupied the ones that are bigger.
In a classic example, the civic body listed Kannappar Thidal, a 23,000-sqft area as a playground for the locality, but children living in the vicinity told Express that they never get a chance to play on the ground, and that it was more or less a ‘parking lot’ for lorries operating from nearby Railway godowns.
Those frequenting playgrounds in Choolai and Vepery also do not allow outsiders to get a game of Cricket going on them.
