KOCHI:
The trend-setting Champions Boat League (CBL) on the lines of IPL cricket will have a brush with its most cosmopolitan crowd along the three-month series, as the fifth of the 12-match event comes this weekend to the state’s commercial capital and largest city.
Kerala Tourism, which is organising the all-Saturday CBL with nine snake-boats that are vying for huge prize monies, expects a strong urban crowd at the October 5 round in downtown Ernakulam. With the weather finally clearing after a long bout of rains, spectators from various parts of the country and abroad are poised to converge at the 960-metre track along upscale Marine Drive of Kochi, known for its surge in tourist influx after monsoons.
The spirited performance of the CBL teams too has added to the curiosity quotient of the October 5 matches. The last two races of the league, especially, had seen the finals conclude in photo-finish for the snake-boats to enter the top three positions.
At the September 28 races in hilly Piravom, 30 km east of here, the competitors had to paddle vigorously upstream the gurgling Moovattupuzha river. That leg had Tropical Titans yet again finishing first, leaving Mighty Oars and Raging Rovers in second and third spots, respectively. The heats, too, were thrillers: in fact, the first six teams at the 900-metre Piravom track were decided within a range of just six seconds.
That has lent added suspense to the Kochi leg, amid Tropical Titans topping the overall list with 55 points, followed by Mighty Rowers (29 points) and Coast Dominators (27). Ahead of the Piravom league, at Karuvatta in Alappuzha district, the top winners (Tropical Titans) finished just a fraction of a second ahead of Coast Dominators. Mighty Oars ended third in that round held along the Leading Channel (near Harippad) on September 14.
“With the passage of each leg, the CBL is getting increasingly exciting,” says a top Kerala Tourism official. “The races are no more just about reviving some of the dysfunctional traditional races; they are proving to be ground for neck-and-neck competition.”
The innovative CBL, which was launched alongside the illustrious Nehru Trophy Boat Race in Alappuzha on August 31, will have its final at Kollam on November 23, overlapping with the President’s Trophy Boat Race. The 10 races in between are spread across six districts of the coastal state.
The upcoming Kochi leg marks the end of a 27-year-old wait for the return of the Indira Gandhi Boat Race (IGBR). Tracing its origin to the year after the assassination of the then prime minister in 1984, the IGBR subsequently held random editions before coming to a standstill in 1992.
Come October 5, the nine CBL snake-boats will vie for honours along the stretch of the backwaters between the first Goshree Bridge and Marine Drive boat jetty. It will also host a variety of entertainment activities like popular music by the famed Avial and a local band of college students, besides classical Bharatanatyam dance and the ritual performing art of Theyyam from upstate Malabar.
The topper of the day will secure Rs 5 lakh, followed by Rs 3 lakh and Rs 1 lakh for finishing second and third, respectively. All participating teams are entitled to Rs 4 lakh per match. The overall winner of the championships is entitled to Rs 25 lakh, followed by Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for the second and third prize winners, respectively.
The races are being routinely broadcast live, and will continue to be so during the rest of the legs. Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Asianet Worldwide, Asianet Plus, Hotstar, ETV Andhra Pradesh and ETV Telangana beam the event for an hour from 4 pm.
The CBL (www.championsboatleague.in), billed as a game-changing initiative, seeks to professionalise Kerala’s largely scattered snake-boat races, while commercialising them without losing the conventional spirit. Tickets can be booked online through ‘Book my Show’ platform, besides outlets that facilitate spot purchase of tickets. The prices range from Rs 200 to 2,000.
The schedule goes thus after the October 5 stage: October 12 (Kottappuram, Thrissur district), October 19 (Ponnani, Malappuram), October 26 (Kainakari, Alappuzha), November 2 (Pulinkunnu, Alappuzha district), November 9 (Kayamkulam, Alappuzha), November 16 (Kallada, Kollam district) and November 23 (Kollam, President’s Trophy Boat Race).
