Now, ‘Save Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium’ campaign takes root in Hyderabad

Close on the heels of two massive citizen movements — ‘Save KBR Park’ and ‘Save Bison Polo Ground’ — another similar campaign started to take roots at Hyderabad’s sprawling Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium on Monday.
Dozens of sports enthusiasts, young and old, gathered at this 69-year-old premises early in the day to raise an unanimous grouse: the fading relevance of the stadium that once played host to top-class international matches.
Over time, it has been reduced to just another space for organising political events, Iftar parties, Christmas and Bathukamma celebrations, the ‘Save LB Stadium’ campaigners rued. Unlike earlier, sporting events and training camps for young, talented athletes are now far and few in between, they said. Incidentally, ace badminton players including P Gopichand, Parupalli Kashyap, Jwala Gutta and Saina Nehwal have all trained at the stadium at some point in time.
“Apart from some summer camps for kids during the holidays, there’s nothing else sports-related that happens here anymore. In fact, we hardly get a chance to play these days. Most of the time, the stadium is rented out for a political event, private gathering or festival celebration,” said M Lohit, a hockey player. “ There was a time when practising at this stadium meant a great future in the sports industry. Now, it is just another place for events,” he added.
Visibly agitated, the player rued how the renting out of the ground for political programmes and functions has rendered it unfit for any kind of sporting activity. Others gathered outside the premises on Monday included sports coaches, athletes, morning walkers, children who attend summer coaching and cricket, football and hockey. Their demand: use the stadium for what it was built. Incidentally, all the sporting activity at the venue has been stalled for chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s upcoming Iftar party on June 2.
Can’t do much against govt’s orders, says T sports official
“We cannot refuse this event because it is the chief minister’s programme. They need some time to make the stadium wind proof and rain proof before the main event,” said A Dinakar Babu, vice-president and managing director of the Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS) expressing helplessness over the situation of the stadium. “There is a government order that makes it mandatory for us to give permission for events. We have no choice but to honour it.” He quickly added: “But usually, we dissuade private parties from organising a non-sporting event in the stadium. There were instances in the past, when I rejected some events because we wanted to hold only sporting events.”
Babu claimed that the body has even sent a recommendation to the state government suggesting that only sports-related events be held at the stadium. “The matter is under review,” he said.