There has been a rise in the football culture of India. One can find more toddlers, teenagers and youngsters with a football than one would have found a few years back. Cricket has although been the all-weather darling of Indians. Indians love cricket more than any other sport and the partiality other games face due to the special preference is given to cricket has seen questions arising and yet there has been another such incident.
However, Sachin Tendulkar, the biggest Ambassador for cricket that India can have come up for football this time. Kochi Cricket Association put its hand on the wrong nerve when it allotted the Kochi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the cricket matches to be held between India and West Indies in November.
The ground was refurbished to host the FIFA U-17 world cup just last year. Known for hosting both cricket and football, the stadium recently hosted ISL matches for the home side Kerala Blasters much to the adulation of the players and fans.
Sachin Tendulkar who is also the owner of the football club Kerala blasters, has now taken it to Twitter to condemn KCA's decision and has urged to rethink the decision. He along with others fear that the turf would get damaged and would lose out the tag of being one of six FIFA approved football grounds in India. Tendulkar found support from Sourav Ganguly, who is also the co-owner of the Kolkata-based ISL franchise Atletico de Kolkata.
.I am with u on this sachin@sachin_rt..@bcci ..please look into this @RJohri ...KCA has super cricket grounds .. https://t.co/w4mcic2qTq
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) March 20, 2018
Former Union Minister and Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor, said he has already spoken to the Committee Of Administrators Chief Vinod Rai against the KCA’s “bizarre” decision to transfer an ODI match from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi, whose ground was used for the U-17 Football World Cup last time.