The Hindu : Sport : A brilliant transformation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 24, 2006

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

A brilliant transformation

Special Correspondent

KADAPA: Barely three months ago, it was a veritable wasteland. Few humans dared to tread there. Night soil littered the place, leaving little room for a toehold. When the Kadapotsavam invitational regatta, kayaking and canoeing championships were held at the Pathakadapa Cheruvu recently, the place was transformed.

Today, a fence greets the visitor first, followed by a string of lotus ponds. Trees adorn the driveway. What should delight the water sports enthusiast is a small pier, that can berth lightweight sail and motor boats.

A dirt road skirts the little lake that appears first, hemmed in by a natural fence of tall reeds. Cross this barrier and one enters a bigger lake, where the Kurnool-Cuddapah (KC) Canal ends. That such a facility exists in Kadapa, where the torrid terrain is hardly hospitable, seems incredible.

The cool gusts soothe, as temperatures soar on shore. From noon onwards, the breeze builds up, bringing the `white horses,' signalling wind speeds 10 knots and upwards. Such velocities should have the sails billowing.

Architect of change

Architect of the change has been Chairman of the District Sports Authority, Collector and District Magistrate, G. Asok Kumar. Formerly, vice-chairman and managing director of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) and the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA), his engineering background and penchant for landscaping are much in evidence here.

Tracing the steps to transformation, he said there were no takers to rid the water body of weeds that had overpowered the lake. The Yanadis, a fishing tribe, were summoned under the National Food for Work programme. Before long, these nomads heaped up mounds of weed raked in manually.

So did the Kadapa Municipal Corporation lend a hand and the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC). The latter introduced a boating service, collections from which touched Rs. 15,000 a day, at times. The crowds lapped up the water sports action, hitherto unseen in their neighbourhood.

The lone sour note to the serene scenario was the `warmth' extended to visiting teams. About 40 participants were holed up in accommodation meant for half that many, in a marriage hall. Supply of drinking water was sparse. Worse still was its scarcity for ablutions.

Left with little choice, the oarsmen and sailors were seen sinking into a squalid temple pond, spiritually purifying maybe, not physically though. "Thirteen years in the field and this has been the worst," said one of them. Such `hospitality,' insulting to the internationals among them, was revolting even to onlookers.

The Collector spoke of grounding a water sports academy beside the 400-odd acre lake. It sounded feasible too. SAAP's Aqua Sports Academy, now located in the Lower Manair Dam, Karimnagar, was found unsuitable, the presence of waves there detrimental to paddle sports.

Such a shift, from cities (Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam which host sailing mostly) to the hinterland, should take sports to the grassroot level.

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