Mar Sabor and Mar Proth
Mar Sabor and Mar Proth who came to India along with Maruvan Sapir Iso were two Bishops who built and presided over a number of churches in the Kingdom of Travancore operating in accordance with Saint Thomas Christians. In 825 AD, the seaport of Quilon was part of the Venad Kingdom; the ruling monarch, Iyyanadikal Thiruvadikal, welcomed the monks on their arrival and showered them with special privileges and honours. Maruvan Sapir Iso built the Nilalkkal ashram near St. Thomas Church in Chayal, he died and buried in Chayal ashram. Mar Sabor and Mar Proth came from Dayro d-Mor Mattai,Ninaveh - is located atop Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq and is 20 kilometers from Mosul Mar Sabor and Mar Proth moved to various villages and established churches including Kadamattom St George Orthodox Syrian Church, Kothanalloor, Kadisha Church in Kollam, Kadisha Church in Kayamkulam and finally to present Thevalakkara Marth Mariam Orthodox Church, where they died and were buried. Parochial writers claim that Mar Sabor and Mar Proth came from Persia or Chaldea at the invitation of the King Kuleshakara of Quilon as an Authority for the Doctrine of Trinity against the background of a Shivate Revival of Advaita Vedanta propounded by Adi Shankara There is no documentary evidence that Kulasekhara invited Mar Sabor.
According to available records Mar Sabor had to flee Persia because of persecution of Christians by the Zoroastrian ruler.. The start of the Malayalam era referred to as Kollavarsham, is associated with Kollam; the era was started by these East Syrian Saints who settled in Korukeni Kollam, near to the present Kollam. Communal writers claim that the start of the ME has been dated to 825 AD, when a great convention was held in Kollam at the behest of King Kulashekhara. Kollam was an important town in that period. Velu Pillai's Manual does not show any documentary evidences, it is a mere narration of the imaginary stories of religious sects. The Hindu paper dated March 3, 2010, says that the research conducted by Dr. Jeyapraksh has established the fact that the Kollam varsha was fixed during the reign of Rajasekhara Varma Udayamarthanda. Two sessions of almanac experts took place in Kozhikode. Thed Kollam session decided to make the first day of the Malayalam month Chingam as the New Year day. V. Nagam Aiya in his Travancore State Manual records that in 822 AD two bishops Mar Sapor and Mar Peroz, settled in Quilon with their followers.
Two years the Malabar Era began and Quilon undoubtedly became the premier city of the Malabar region including Travancore and Cochin. Nagam Aiya wrote the State Manual without quoting evidences, he accepted the imaginary stories of communal writers. There is nothing in the Kerala archives that Mar Sabor founded the Thangasserry ports. Chera rulers were having commercial and maritime contacts with foreign countries long before Mar Sabor arrived at Kollam as a refugee. Sanghom literature speaks about Greek ships on Kerala coast. M. G. S. Narayanan in his paper on the Chera-Pandya conflict in the 8th–9th centuries, which led to the emergence of Venad or the Kingdom of Quilon writes, "It is not surprising that the Chera king, contemplating the development of the new harbour town at Kurakeni Kollam welcomed the monks and permitted him to introduce Syrian liturgy in worship other than Sanskrit liturgy following the shivite revival; this was the period. The foundation of Kollam in 825 A. D. must have coincided with this victory of Chera in the Vel province.
Therefore it is easy to understand the anxiety of the Chera king to please Vaishanavites and allow the Assyrian Monks to settle at Kollam so that the harbour might grow and compete with Nillakal further south which had passed under the control of the Pandya. The Syrian Christian Monks who took advantage of the situation were clever and resourceful. In the absence of materials for a detailed history, it is difficult to ascertain whether Mar Abo was a or missionary, he was both at the same time and there was no inherent contradiction between the two roles." Narayanan has referred to the enterprising spirit of Chera kings and how they welcomed merchants from abroad, this does not give special significance to the arrival of refugee monks. Narayanan writes in Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala that "By the time of the Syrian christian Copper Plates of the 9th century the foreign Christians and the Christians of Kerala who were just Nampoothiri Vaishnavites and Nairs had become part and parcel of the local village community."
"The deity of the Tarsa Church was referred to the tevar. An important offering to the tevar was the sacred oil lamp as in the case of contemporary Brahmanical temples, is an indication to the fact that their conception of religion was shaped by local culture." Narayanan would have been carried away by the works of some Christian writers when he wrote "Cultural Symbiosis"that local converts were'just Nampoothiri Vaishnavites". How could Christians become vaishnavites when the Bible categorically states that Christians should not worship pagan gods? Moreover, Persian missionaries. Vaishnava Vishnu worship was alien to the Persians missionaries and to the local converts converted by them.. Most western writers were misled by the claim of parochial writers. Logan writes: " The final Brahman immigration seems to have occurred in or about the eighth century A. D. and Christian colonies had arrived in the country long before that time.: Narayanan wanted to show the existence of various religious cultures in the Chera
Tharisapalli plates
Kollam Tharisappalli copper plates known as Kollam/Quilon Syrian copper plates, or Kottayam inscription of Sthanu Ravi, is a copper-plate grant issued by the chieftain of Kollam, Ayyan Adikal, to Syrian Christian merchant Mar Sapir Iso in the 5th regnal year of the Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi "Kulasekhara". The royal charter is engraved in Old Malayalam in Grantha scripts; the Tharisappalli copper plates are one of the important historical inscriptions of Kerala, the date of, determined. It is certain that the plates are part of a three charter series, of which two alone have survived, issued by the chieftain of Kollam; the earliest survived charter, dated to 849 AD, contains a reference to a previous charter and some of rights granted. The second survived charter, three plates writing on both sides, is dated to c. 883 AD. One part of the copper plates is kept at the Devalokam Aramana of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church while the other is at Poolatheen Aramana of Malankara Marthoma Syrian Church.
Summarised prescription of the plates Mar Sapir Iso founded a trading corporation at Kollam, recruited two merchant guilds as the tenants of the nagara. Iso built the "Church of Tharisa" at Kollam and received three charters from the chieftain of Kollam The charters granted Iso several titles and aristocratic privileges, plots of land and serfs to the church and the nagara; the charters gifted Iso service personnel like agricultural labourers, toddy tappers and other skilled workers - some arrangements were made regarding their protection and maintenance. The Six Hundred Nairs of Venad were jointly entrusted with the judicial and revenue administration of the city The grants were made in the presence of important officers of the state and the representatives of merchant guilds Anjuvannam and Manigramam, it throws light on the system of taxation that prevailed in early Venad, as several taxes such as a profession tax, sales tax and vehicle tax are mentioned. Kesavan Veluthat, The Early Medieval in South India.
Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2009. M. G. S. Narayanan, Perumāḷs of Kerala. Thrissur: CosmoBooks, 2013. State and Society in Premodern South India, eds R. Champakalakshmi, Kesavan Veluthat, T. R. Venugopalan. Thrissur, CosmoBooks, 2012. K. N. Ganesh. "Historical Geography of Natu in South India with Special Reference to Kerala". Indian Historical Review. 36: 3–21
Kollam International Hockey Stadium
The International Astro Turf Hockey Stadium is a hockey stadium situated at the city of Kollam, first of its kind in Kerala state, with a nominal capacity of around 5,000 seats. The stadium is located at an area, known as Depot Maidan within the Asramam Government property complex, less than 500 meters from the Chinnakada traffic circle; the Depot Maidan lies on the way to the Yatri Nivas Hotel from Chinnakada and was serving as a timber depot of the Forest Department before. The International Hockey Stadium in Kollam can host international hockey matches along the likes of New Delhi, Bangalore and Ranchi; the stadium is in picturesque surroundings with Ashtamudi Lake amid a lot of greenery. National Games Secretariat was overseeing the works of the stadium as part of National Games-2015. National Games-2015 of India had been held on Kerala; as part of that, Government of Kerala have facilitated 29 venues in the state spread over Trivandrum, Kochi, Thrissur and Alappuzha cities. Kollam city & district are famous for its players and the passion for the game.
So for supporting the city's passion towards Hockey, Government of Kerala had decided to build a most modern astro turf hockey stadium within the city. Administrative sanction and construction works for the stadium has been started on 2005, in a 4.78 acres plot for a cost of Rs. 9 crores. M. Vijayakumar, the Sports Minister of Kerala had laid the foundation stone for the stadium on 20 January 2005. Total plot area - 1.86 Hectare Area of the stadium - 16,000 sqft Main Play area - 6,570 sqft Practicing area - 2,680 sqft Kollam city became a part of 2015 National Games of India. 2 main events - Hockey, Rugby sevens had been held at 2 different stadiums in the city Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium and International Hockey Stadium. The International Hockey Stadium was named as Dhyan Chand Plaza during the time of National Games; the Indian Olympic Association has taken a decision to conduct 12th South Asian Games in Trivandrum and Alappuzha venues in Kerala. The astro turff international hockey stadium would become one of the venues of South Asian Games.
Athletes from India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Pakistan will be participating in the event
Ashtamudi Lake
Ashtamudi Lake, in the Kollam District of the Indian state of Kerala, is the most visited backwater and lake in the state. It possesses a unique wetland ecosystem and a large palm-shaped water body, second only in size to the Vembanad estuary ecosystem of the state. Ashtamudi means'eight braids' in the local Malayalam language; the name is indicative of the lake's topography with its multiple branches. The lake is called the gateway to the backwaters of Kerala and is well known for its houseboat and backwater resorts. Ashtamudi Wetland was included in the list of wetlands of international importance, as defined by the Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands. Along both banks of the lake and its backwater canals, coconut groves and palm trees interspersed with towns and villages are seen. Kollam, is an important historic port city located on the right bank of the lake. Boat cruises are operated by the Kollam Boat Club from Kollam to Alappuzha providing transport access to many other towns and villages along this route.
Luxury houseboats operate on the lake. The boat journey is an 8-hour trip, winding through lakes and water bound villages. Chinese fishing nets, called cheena vala in Malayalam, are used by local fisherman and are a common sight along the waterway; the lake and the city of Kollam on its banks and the Neendakara port at the confluence offer a means of transport for the state’s trade and commerce in the cashew trading and processing industry as well as the marine products industry. The lake is the source of livelihood of many people living close by. Fishing, coconut husk retting for coir production and inland navigation services are the prominent businesses. In 2014,Clam Governing Council of Ashtamudi lake became the first Marine Stewardship Council certified fishery in India for their sustainable clam fishing; the lake and the life on its shores have inspired many writers. It has been the subject of many poems by the renowned poet Thirunalloor Karunakaran, born and brought up on its banks. Quilon or Kollam and the Ashtamudi lake's importance is claimed to be dated to the days of the Phoenicians and the Romans.
Ibn Batuta, during his 24-year sojourn in the 14th century, is reported to have mentioned about the Quilon port as one of the five ports for Chinese trade. Links with Persia, Chinese mandarin in 1275 AD, Portuguese in 1502 AD, the Dutch followed British in 1795 AD are recorded history. Velu Thampi is credited with organizing the rebellion against the British from this place. Considering Kollam as the entry city to the lake, access to the lake are to the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, 71 km away and by road to all important centres in Kerala and the rest of the country. National Highway 47 passes through the lake periphery not only from Quilon but to other locations on its bank from Thiruvananthapuram to the northern towns of Kerala. Southern Railways network of lines connects Quilon with all important centres in the rest of the country. Ferry services operate daily to Alleppey and boats operate to all villages located in the canals of the backwater system; the boat jetty is located at about 2 km away from the railway station.
Famous Paravur estuary and backwaters are just 21 kilometer away from Ashtamudi. Kallada River is a major river discharging into the Ashtamudi Lake; the Kallada river, which originates near Ponmudi from the Kulathupuzha hills Western Ghats is formed by the confluence of three rivers, viz. Kulathupuzha and Kalthuruthipuzha, after traversing a distance of about 121 km through virgin forests debouches into the Ashtamudi wetland at Peringalam near Kollam. With a maximum depth of 21 ft at the confluence, it is Kerala’s deepest estuary. Quaternary and Tertiary sediments and sedimentary rocks are the formations in the lake basin and environs; the Quaternary sediments are of fluvial alluvium of recent age. Tertiary sediments comprise laterite and clays of Warkalai formation; the average annual runoff from the river system into the estuary is reported to be 76 cubic kilometers of freshwater. The basin drainage area is 1,700 km2 and with an average annual rainfall of 2400 mm it discharges 3.375 km3 of flow annually.
It acts as a flood storage lake thus protecting the thickly populated city of Quilon and the coastal land. The Kallada dam built across the Kallada river is 85.3 m high by 35 m long with a reservoir area of 23 km2 with a storage volume of 0.505 km3. Though it provides irrigation to 61630 ha for paddy and upland crops, it has aggravated the salinity ingress into the wetland and the river due to reduced outflows during summer months. Temperatures recorded in the area are a maximum of 27.5 °C and a minimum of 25.5 °C. The climate is humid during April -- May while cool during December -- January. Ashtamudi Estuary has mangroves Avicennia officinalis, Brugiera gymnorrhiza and Sonneratia caseolaris as 43 species of marshy and mangrove associates including two endangered species Syzygium travancoricum and Calamus rotang in the Terrestrial system; these species offer excellent scope for development of marine bioreserve to promote eco-tourism in the estuarine of the lake. IUCN lists the two endangered species in IUCN 2008.
The total number of Syzygium travancoricum is reported to be small, not more than 200. The major threats to the endangered species are draining of the wet lands and conversion into paddy fields; the lake su
Kerala Tourism Development Corporation
The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation is a public sector undertaking that conducts and regulates the tourism activities in the Indian state of Kerala. The KTDC has offices across all the districts of Kerala; the agency operates hotels and tourist rest houses in key locations in the state. Its official slogan is "Official host to God's own country." It is one of the most profitable ventures of the Kerala government. Kerala was a unknown state among tourist circles until the early 1960s; the first initiative to popularize Kerala as a tourist destination was undertaken by Travancore's Prince Consort Col. Godavarma Raja started Kerala Tours Limited to popularize key tourist locations in Travancore Kingdom; when Travancore merged with India, Kerala Tours Limited became a private entity under the Travancore royal family. For more than 20 years since Independence, Kerala trend to ignore tourism as a key industry, leaving KTL and other private players to lead the role. In the 1960s, KTL struck gold, by collaborating with Thomas Cook and started popularizing Kovalam in western countries which started the advent of hippie culture in Kovalam Beach.
The strong inflow of tourists into Kovalam, started Kerala government to consider tourism as a key industry. Though it tried to nationalize Kerala Tours Limited, it soon fell into legal issues; this resulted in the government to think starting a new entity known as Kerala Tourism Development Corporation IN 1966. Started as a government department, KTDC became a separate commercial entity by the 1970s. Several premium guest houses of Kerala Government were converted into hotel brands. Lt. Col. G. V. Raja was the President of Tourism Promotion Council of Kerala, he was the main architect in developing Kovalam as an international tourist spot. To promote Kerala as a leading tourist destination To identify key tourist destinations within Kerala and promote it outside To provide auxiliary support in developing key tourist destinations To provide highest quality hospitality services to tourists To act as one-source destination for various informations regarding tourist destinations and other related informations.
To ensure higher returns to government, through financial and social viable projects, thereby provide employment KTDC owns more than 40 properties ranging from heritage five-star resorts to budget accommodation, managed under five brands in hotel category and 2 in non hotel hospitality category KTDC owns 3 flagship properties known for its historical importance. Bolgatty Island Resort in Kochi, which houses the Bolgatty Palace, a heritage property, the largest Dutch palace outside the Netherlands. Built in 1635 as Palace of Dutch Governor of India, this soon became British Residency for Travancore-Cochin Kingdoms; the palace is part of Bolgatty resort which has another property, branded as Island Resort, which has a nine-course golf club, horsing tracks and other facilities. Mascot Hotel Trivandrum, located in state capital Thiruvananthapuram is a heritage property built in 1902 which used to accommodate Travancore Army officials and Army Center until 1949. Lake Palace, a former summer palace of the King of Travancore, is on an island in the middle of the Periyar Lake — 20 minutes by boat from the mainland, located inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
KTDC has 7 resort styled hotel properties aiming for leisure travellers. All properties in the premium range are individually branded. Marina House: KTDC manages India's first marina which includes a 24-room hotel, Marina House, located in Bolgatty Island, Kochi; the facility features 34 berthing spaces of yachts and Marina Club House for travellers to unwind their journeys with facilities for embarkation and disembarkation process. Bolgatty Island Resort- Part of Bolgatty Island, the resort features a world class urban resort with a nine course golf course, a horse track, honeymoon cottages and private gardens. Aranya Nivas Thekkady built within Periyar National Park is a five-star jungle lodge. Waterscapes Kumarakom is a group of lake cottage suites built over Vembanadu Lake in the tourist destination Kumarakom. Samudra Beach Kovalam, a five-star property in Kovalam Beach Tea County Munnar, a heritage colonial tea estate bungalow refurnished as a four-star hotel Suvasam Lake Resort Alapuzha, is a latest property located close to Thaneermukkam Bund overlooking the mighty Vembandu Lake.
KTDC has three-star "value plus" range hotels across five districts of Kerala. Most of the hotels are designed to cater business and upper-segment family market; each value plus hotel property is themed around its location. Golden Peak Ponmudi: Honeymoon Hotel Chitaram Thiruvananthapuram: City Business Hotel Nandhanam Guruvayur: Pilgrim Hotel Periyar House Thekkady: Jungle Safari Lodge Garden House Malampuzha: Picnic Hotel Peppergrove Wayanad: Spice Garden Hotel Raindrops Chennai. Business class hotel. Tamarind Easy is a series of 15 budget hotels spread across Kerala. Major cities including Kollam, Alappuzha and Kannur have Tamarind hotels KTDC was one of the first hospitality chains in India to start series of motels across major state and national highways; the motels are branded as Aaram. Every Aaram has a large restaurant, rest rooms and many motels have dormitories as well as a medical center. A few designated Aarams do have beer parlors. KTDC manages 2 properties under Non Hotel Hospitality category.
The Bolgatty Events Center, a 5 star convention center facility located in Bolgatty Island Resort in Kochi is the flagship
Malayalam
Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people, it is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam has official language status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry and is spoken by 38 million people worldwide. Malayalam is spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states. Due to Malayali expatriates in the Persian Gulf, the language is widely spoken in Gulf countries; the origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. One view holds that Malayalam and modern Tamil are offshoots of Middle Tamil and separated from it sometime after the c. 7th century. A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of "Proto-Dravidian" or "Proto-Tamil-Malayalam" in the prehistoric era. Designated a "Classical Language in India" in 2013, it developed into the current form by the influence of the poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan in the 16th century.
The oldest documents written purely in Malayalam and still surviving are the Vazhappalli Copper plates from 832 and Tharisapalli Copper plates from 849. The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu alphabet, the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it; the current Malayalam script is based on the Vatteluttu script, extended with Grantha script letters to adopt Indo-Aryan loanwords. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries; the first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. The word Malayalam originated from the words mala, meaning "mountain", alam, meaning "region" or "-ship"; the term referred to the land of the Chera dynasty Tamil dynasty, only became the name of its language. The language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayali, Malean and Mallealle; the earliest extant literary works in the regional language of present-day Kerala date back to as early as the 12th century.
However, the named identity of this language appears to have come into existence only around the 16th century, when it was known as "Malayayma" or "Malayanma". The word "Malayalam" was coined in the period, the local people referred to their language as both "Tamil" and "Malayalam" until the colonial period; the held view is that Malayalam was the western coastal dialect of Tamil and separated from Tamil sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries. Some scholars however believe that both Tamil and Malayalam developed during the prehistoric period from a common ancestor,'Proto-Tamil-Dravidian', that the notion of Malayalam being a'daughter' of Tamil is misplaced; this is based on the fact that Malayalam and several Dravidian languages on the western coast have common features which are not found in the oldest historical forms of Tamil. Robert Caldwell, in his 1856 book "A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages", opined that Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil and over time gained a large amount of Sanskrit vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.
As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, written in Tamil-Brahmi and the Vatteluttu alphabet greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. The Malayalam script began to diverge from the Tamil-Brahmi script in the 9th centuries, and by the end of the 13th century a written form of the language emerged, unique from the Tamil-Brahmi script, used to write Tamil. Malayalam is similar to some Sri Lankan Tamil dialects, the two are mistaken by native Indian Tamil speakers; the Portuguese called the Kerala variant of Malayalam-Tamil Lingua Malabar Tamul. It was called Malabar Thamozhi; the first book to be printed in Lingua Malabar Tamul was Cartilha in 1554, which used Portuguese letters to write the Malabar Thamozhi. Ravikutty Pilla Por, written in the 17th century, is the shining example of Malayanma literature. Ananthapuri Varnanam, written in the 1800s, was among the last of these Malayalam-Tamil books. Itty Achudan, the famed Ayurvedic physician, used Malayanma and Kolezhuttu to write Hortus Malabaricus in 1678.
In the 17th century, the Malayanma script was extensively used by the Catholics of Kerala. Samkshepa Vedartham, in Malayanma, was printed in Rome in 1772; the Ramban Bible, written in Malayanma, was translated from Syriac by Fr. Phillipose and published in 1811. After this period, the British banned Malayanma and most of the books written in Malayanma disappeared; the British never supported or translated Malayanma books into Grantha Malayalam, which they chose to promote in the 19th century. Iravikutti Pilla Por, Vadakkan Pattu, Thacholi Pattu, Kannassa Ramayanam, Ramacharitham Ananthapuri Varnanam are a few of the Malayanma books which have survived. Malayanma, the indigenous Dravidian tongue, its great literary tradition were lost in history. In the 12th century, Kerala was invaded by the Tulu Bana Kings, with an army from Ahichatra on the Indo-Nepalese border. Keralolpathi mentions a Tulu invader called Banapperumal, the brother of Tulu king Kavi Raja Singhan of the Alupa dynasty, who invaded Kerala with a Large Nair army led by Pada Mala Nair.
Banapperumal established his capital at
Kerala Cricket Association
The Kerala Cricket Association is the governing body of the game of cricket in the Kerala state of the Republic of India. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. KCA is the parent body of 14 district associations – one in each of the revenue districts of Kerala, responsible for governing the game of cricket in their respective districts. KCA is involved in organising the game from the grass roots level to the international level. KCA implements its programs through its units – the district associations, it conducts zone level as well as state level age-group tournaments for Under-14, Under-16, Under-19, Under-22 and Under-25. State teams of these categories are selected through this tournaments. KCA participates in all age group tournaments conducted by the BCCI in both men's and women's categories, it hosts national tournaments and international matches in the state. Through its unique program CASH-Kerala, KCA adopts and trains around 500 school children every year through its district level and state level cricket academies.
Operation Gold Hunt is another unique program of KCA wherein it has adopts and trains selected young athletes, to help them achieve higher goals. H. H Lt. Col. G. V. Raja, Consort Prince of Travancore, formed the Travancore-Cochin Cricket Association in 1950; the primary objective of the association was to popularise the game in the State of Travancore-Cochin. The formative meeting of the Travancore-Cochin Cricket Association was held in the auditorium of the Maharaja's College, due to the efforts of the P. M. Krishnan and P. M. Raghavan with support from Raja. Upon its inception, the Travancore-Cochin Cricket Association selected the first Travancore-Cochin first class team, led by Raghavan; the team played its first match in the Ranji Trophy circuit against Mysore, where the highlight was P. M. Anandan's six wicket haul, conceding only 100 runs in 27 overs in the first innings of the match. Following the formation of the state of Kerala in 1956, the Travancore-Cochin Cricket Association was renamed as the Kerala Cricket Association.
There had been contributions from a number of families in Kerala for the development of cricket in the state. These families include the Edathil, Moorkoth and Pazhaya Parambath; the Mampally family was arguably the leaders amongst them, as apart from a number of members from this family playing higher level cricket, they devoted a lot of effort to the betterment of cricket in Kerala. The Acharath family contributed to the game's development in Kerala, by donating personalities like ACM Abdulla the farsighted administrator, Babu Acharath the elegant player and Coach and Mackey the sparkling all rounder and coach. There were certain intrinsic difficulties. Since the South-Western monsoon rains hit the Kerala Coast as early as the first week of June every year, the Cricketing season could only start in October as opposed to June–July in other parts of the Country. Being a small strip of land between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, availability of land is a big challenge in the State; this was a major hindrance in developing decent outfields.
The extent of the problem was so much, so that till recently the only exclusive Cricket ground in Kerala was owned by the Thripunithura Cricket Club. The absence of finance was a further handicap. Since there were no Stadia with the required facilities available in the State till recent past, scope of hosting international matches was nonexistent; this hindered the association's efforts of raising funds. Participation of the State teams in the national tournaments like Ranji trophy poised a big struggle to the administrators; these predicaments were overcome only with the sheer willpower of the administrators and to a great extent with the generous and timely financial assistance provided by philanthropists like S. V. Pandit. However, things made a turn for the better, through the sixties, the State participated in the various inter-school and age group tournaments run by the BCCI; the mid nineties had been a period of eminence for Cricket in Kerala, when its Ranji Trophy side qualified to the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time in the 1994/95 season.
The team continued its fete in the next season as well when they qualified to the super league staged of the tournament. Players like Ananthapadmanabhan, Sunil Oasis, Feroze V Rasheed, M Suresh, Ajay Kuduva, Sreekumar Nair and Sujith Somasunder had contributed profoundly to this achievement. Of them Ananthapadmanabhan was considered as a definite Indian Team prospect; the last two decades had witnessed a paradigm shift in Kerala Cricket in both ways. Beginning with pacer Tinu Yohanan's inclusion in the National side, the tempo was sustained by the inclusion of S Sreesanth on; the present day Kerala Cricket teams are making deep inroads in all BCCI tournaments as the State is emerging as one of the powerhouses of Indian Cricket. This can be corroborated with the fact that as many as 7 players from the State are playing in the Indian Premier League representing different teams. Sanju was chosen as the best young player of the Lea
India
