Raichur cricket stadium project in limbo

raichur: it was a googly that the residents of raichur couldn't face. when a cricket match was organised here to raise money for the construction of an "international-standard" stadium, a battery of veterans descended on the town. they included rahul dravid, vijay bharadwaj, mithun birala, saurav ganguly, v.v.s. lakshman and r.s. sodhi. the match did raise money and also the hopes of the residents.the hitch: the project has been put in deep freeze now. the first sod was turned some time at a ceremony in june graced by karnataka state cricket association (ksca) president k.m. ram prasad, secretary brijesh patel, deputy commissioner g. kumar nayak and other top officials. on the occasion, brijesh patel and kumar nayak presented cheques of rs 25 lakh and rs 22.6 lakh respectively to abdul hakeem, the organiser. in all, a total of rs 47,73,750 was collected through sale of tickets, sponsorships, advertisements, hoardings and donations. of the amount collected, rs 15 lakh was paid to the beneficiaries of the cricket match and rs 10.3 lakh towards expenses. about rs 8.82 lakh was spent on conducting the match. convinced that the work on the project was "progressing well", the ksca contributed rs 25 lakh. an excise contractor, anjaneya, donated a 12-acre land on the raichur-mantralayam road on the city outskirts to build the stadium. just when the groundwork had been done and construction about to take off, the ksca reportedly started training its eyes on bellary, bijapur, bagalkot, hubli and mysore for the project. the ksca also toyed with the idea of taking a stadium on lease for a 25-year period. as if hints about shelving the project were not evident enough, the ksca has clamped a blanket-ban on league matches in raichur. what has earned the wrath of the residents of raichur is the reported action of the government in allotting a 30-acre land to the ksca in peenya on the outskirts of bangalore. stumped, the realtors of raichur, who were cashing in on the stadium project by skyrocketing land rates in the vicinity, have reportedly decided to keep in abeyance the layout-formation activities. who is on a sticky wicket: the organisers or the ksca? bar-bench harmony needed: ``the bench and bar are two faces of the same coin. hence the need for a cordial relationship between the two,'' according to justice s.r. venkatesh murthy of the karnataka high court. he was addressing the members of district bar association here on tuesday. bar association president b. basawarajappa welcomed the gathering and s.e. narayan proposed a vote of thanks.