Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Apr 20: State health minister, U T Khadar, kick-started the floodlit football and cricket tournament organized by the city-based Football Players Association at Nehru Maidan here on Sunday April 19.
Speaking after inaugurating the event, the minister praised organizer of the tournament, D M Aslam, for his unstinting efforts towards popularizing the game of football by regularly organizing tournaments and competitions and thereby ensuring that Nehru Maidan's identity as a sports ground does not get diluted.
He felt that the city corporation needs to chalk out programme for overall development of Nehru Maidan by building a stadium here in consultation with the sports minister. At the same time, he requested the sports persons and patrons to wholeheartedly support the upcoming national level Athletic Federation Cup tournament being held in the city.
City mayor, Jacinta Vijay Alfred, who inaugurated the blood donation camp held on the occasion, hailed the organizers of the event for understanding the importance of blood donation and organizing camp on the occasion. Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district Muslim Central Committee president, Muhammed Masood, addressing the gathering,pointed out that the pavilion building at the stadium is in a dilapidated state, and urged the city corporation to take step for the overall development of this stadium.
MLA, J R Lobo, Prabhakar Shriyan of Dakshina Kannada District Red Cross Society, managing director of Apple Ply, A K Niaz, Mansoor Ahmed of Azad Hardware, city corporator, Abdullatif, president of Mangalore Football Players Association, Khalid Basha, Harishchandra Bengre, Anil, U B Saleem, and others were present.
The tournament will continue till April 28. A friendly cricket match will be organized between teams of journalists from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts on April 22. Over arm cricket matches will be held on April 25 and 26. Winning teams of both the games will receive trophies, and a total sum of Rs 5 lacs as cash reward, it is learnt.
Aslam said that this tournament is being organized with the help of supporters of sports and players, with the specific objective of retaining the identity of this sports stadium. Recalling that the pavilion here had been built with the help of donations by him in the past, he wanted the construction of a well-equipped stadium with proper facilities for the sports persons, and asked the city corporation to evince interest and move in this direction.