Mumbai : A colourful ceremony marked the opening of the Colaba Super League at the Back Gardens Football Ground in Colaba, which will play host to this festival of football in Mumbai’s footballing hub.
It seemed like the good old days of football had made its way back to Colaba as the ceremony was greeted with great enthusiasm by the citizens, both young and old from the area, who gathered in large numbers.
Gracing the occasion were prominent dignitaries, including Raj Purohit, BJP MLA from Colaba along with corporator Sushma Salunke, Vinod Shekhar, former Congress corporator. Anjali Shah who represents PIFA Colaba, the biggest club in Colaba, was also present to lend her support to the event.
Leading Indian singer Mihir Joshi regaled the large gathering with some of his popular songs from his albums. Krishna Pawle, President of the CSL was delighted to finally see his dream come into reality, but that has just given him a chance to dream bigger. “I am happy to see CSL finally ready to start. We want football to grow and use it to help the community. We have strived hard for this and will continue to do so. Now we have a new dream, a dream of seeing a CSL player play for India one day,” he said.
In the football action, Golden Tigers roared to a close 1-0 win against Konaark Realtors in an opening league match, Striker Noel Rodricks struck the lone goal in the 16th minute of the match. In another well-contested league match, Karim Shaikh’s 29th minute strike proved good enough for Naaz United to eke out a 1-0 win against Hiraai Suns.
Meanwhile, Brainy World had things much their own way as they cruised to a 3-1 win against Kalakaar Indians. For the winners the goals were scored by skiller Chetan Tandel, Devdas Patil and Hemant Meher, while Sushant Jadhav reduced the margin for the losers.
