Kumble gets rousing welcome in Kumbla

DHNS

• Road named after Anil Kumble on Sunday

Kasargod, 27 June 2010: A large number of cricket fans were in Kumble to take part in the civic reception hosted in honour of right-arm leg spin (legbreak googly) bowler Anil Kumble by Kumble gram panchayat on Sunday. The Kumbla town wore a festive mood on the occasion.

Anil Kumble was taken in a procession from ‘Kumble Road’ to the city hall where he was honoured.

Speaking on the occasion, he told the cheering crowd: “For me, my birth place, whether it is Karnataka or Kerala is not important. I am Indian by birth first.” He hoped that another cricketer emerges from Kumble.

Kumble’s paternal grandfather hailed from the village and his official visit to the village on Sunday was no less than a festival for the villagers.

The gram panchayat had initially planned to hold this civic reception for Kumble, on November 21 last year. However, communal disturbance in nearby Kasargod forced the organisers to drop the function on an advise from the local authorities.
A stretch of 450-metre long local road (Kumble-Badiadka route) was spruced up and fitted with interlock tiles. The panchayat will convert the entire stretch in the same manner soon, said Gram Panchayat President Abbas.

Gram Panchayat Vice-President Keshava Prasad had stated that the gram panchayat had decided on naming the stretch of Badiadka—telephone exchange road after Kumble by a resolution by its member Prashanth in November 2008. “We have used interlock tiles to develop 150 metre stretch of road for now and the entire 450 metre-long road would be developed similarly at a cost of around Rs 8 lakh.”

In fact, Kumble has visited Kumble several times in the past with his family to pay obeisance to their family deity Sri Lakshminarayana.

However, it is for the first time that Kumble is being honoured in his ancestral place. MP P Karunakaran inaugurated the programme. Kumble Panchayat President M Abbas presided.

MLAs C T Ahammed Ali, C H Kunhambu, former MP I Rama Rao, Block Panchayat President Golden Abdul Khader, Zilla Panchayat member M C Maruddin, Prabhakar Chowta and others were present on the occasion.