With Hyderabad’s open spaces rapidly shrinking, sports enthusiasts are being pushed to the city’s fringes— travelling far just to keep their love for the game aliveSince 2020, 31-year-old IT sector employee Dipangshu Mukherjee travels nearly 30 km from Kondapur to Chilkur every Saturday just to play cricket.Then there are some like V Deekshit Reddy, a cricket enthusiast who works with a US-based IT firm, who think nothing of travelling even longer distances just to fi nd a suitable playground for a game of cricket.

“I commute twice a week between Patancheru and Aziz Nagar, covering around 50 km as the existing grounds are small and do not offer facilities with proper pitches and turf that meet national and international standards, forcing us to travel to the outskirts in search of a suitable ground,” says Reddy.“There are many cricket enthusiasts in Nagole, Medchal, and Kompally who regularly travel long distances on weekends to play matches,” adds Reddy.No more ‘home venues’This situation exemplifi es how the shrinking playgrounds in Hyderabad are compelling sports enthusiasts to venture to distant locations. They now have to travel to areas such as Chilukur, Moinabad, Cherlapally, Shamshabad, Vattinagulapally, Tellapur, Gundlapochampally, Gopanpally, and Janwada, which are way beyond the city limits.The playground at Nanakramguda, near ORR, where Mukherjee used to play cricket with his friends, is today choc-a-bloc with buildings.City pales in comparisonHighlighting the disparity in playground accessibility between his hometown and Hyderabad, 21-yearold Roger Shah, who came to the city a year ago, voices his surprise at the scarcity of space for playing football near his residence.“My town in West Bengal offers abundant open spaces, with one available every 1 km, along with many football courts. As I live in Gachibowli, I need to travel 15-20 km to either Secunderabad or Golkonda to fi nd a football ground,” he says.Though there are around 521 small open grounds within GHMC limits, most of them can only accommodate volleyball, badminton, tennis, and basketball courts and are inadequate for cricket and football.Recently, a boy complained to Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) that an open plot in Raidurg, once used for playing cricket, was being turned into a real estate venture.This was one of several open spaces that have long disappeared, forcing youngsters to pay and play in commercial venues.“Now I, along with 10 other players, arrange three to four cars to travel to Chilkur to play in cricket tournaments,” explains Mukherjee.“We have to pay ₹500 each towards ground fees, as organisers charge between Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 per slot for a four-hour match. The monthly cost for each player is ₹5,000 to ₹10,000,” said V Raviteja, who plays cricket in the Aziz Nagar area.Manikonda municipality to develop cricket stadiumManikonda municipality is going to install LED fl oodlights and related infrastructure for a cricket stadium in their locality. The civic body invited tenders for setting up the paraphernalia required for the operation of the stadium as per the norms laid down by the Sports Authority of India.