Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar made his tryst with Kochi, the backwater city of Kerala, two years ago when he became a co-owner of ISL team Kerala Blasters. Since then, he visited Kochi several times to watch ISL matches. He was in Kochi during last year’s Onam celebrations to feast with his team members. This Onam too, he greeted all Malayalis through a Facebook post, which had a photo of him enjoying the Ona sadya last year.
Sachin is particularly charmed by the warm hospitality extended by Kerala. His love for Kochi has now metamorphosed into an abiding passion to make the city his second home. He has almost finalised his plan to buy a luxury waterfront villa nearing completion at Kundannur in Kochi. This will be his first residence in South India.
The ‘Blue Waters Villa’ being developed by Prime Meridian has all the trappings of luxurious modern living such as two swimming pools–one in the rooftop of the apartment and second an infinity pool on the waterfront, a high resolution CCTV camera, video phone to communicate with visitors and 24-hour manned security with intercom facility to communicate with each villa.
Interestingly, Sachin will have the company of Sreesanth who lives not far from Kundannur. Sreesanth, after his acquittal from the spot-fixing case, is cooling his heels awaiting BCCI nod to resume his cricketing career. But the appeal filed by Delhi police in the Delhi High Court against his acquittal by the trial court has sent shock waves among his fans.
Image courtesy: facebook.com/SachinTendulkar
After settling down in his new home in Kochi, Sachin has ambitious plans to develop the sports infrastructure in Kerala. To begin with, he plans to invest in building a Sports City in Kochi. He is on the lookout for a minimum of 50 acres of land in a well-connected city suburb.
The Sports City project envisages one or two stadiums with sophisticated facilities, an indoor stadium, fitness centres, residential complex, convention centre, shopping malls, food joints and a green zone. The project would also provide housing facilities for trainers, trainees and staff. It is expected that Tendulkar’s involvement would help attract international academies and trainers to the Sports City.
In due course, he proposes to set up similar Sports Cities in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode as well as in other South Indian states depending on the success in Kochi.
