Aerial view is representative. Drone photography of the actual completed installation pending client approval.
The recreation committee had spent three months trying to find space on the campus for a cricket practice facility. Every open area was already taken — parking, landscaping, a generator yard that no one wanted to touch. The HR head was about to push the idea to the next quarter when the committee chairperson noticed the strip.
The strip ran between Block A and Block B, the two original buildings on the campus. Sixty feet wide, seventy feet long. Both long sides were the actual facade walls of occupied office buildings. The short ends had ornamental hedging. There was zero vehicle access from any direction — the gap between the building corners and the perimeter boundary was too narrow for a loaded flatbed, and campus management had already said no to removing any section of hedge. All material would have to be hoisted over the building wall from the public road outside using a mobile crane, then carried the rest of the way by hand.
Three quotes were obtained. Two vendors visited, saw the access situation, and backed out within the week. The third sent a quote so loaded with logistics surcharges it was unbudgetable. The recreation committee chairperson sent the requirement to ChampCourts with a note that said, in part: "Every other vendor says it cannot be done. We believe it can. We are looking for someone who agrees."
ChampCourts agreed. The site visit confirmed the constraints but also identified the opportunity: the existing concrete walkway in the strip was in good structural shape. No demolition. No base construction. No concrete work inside the site at all. The project was purely a surface installation. Turf rolls could be carried once they were over the wall. Infill material came in bags. The PP tiles for the run-off surround were 1ft x 1ft — man-portable in any quantity. Every element of the scope had been chosen to travel by hand.
The specification was a dual-surface system: a central artificial turf pitch strip of standard cricket practice dimensions, with a PP interlocking tile surround for the run-off area at both ends. This combination serves the two distinct functions of a practice facility. The turf strip provides the consistent bounce and pace response that batting and bowling practice require. The PP tile surround gives a stable, level surface for players waiting, coaches observing, and fielders retrieving — a harder surface that handles foot traffic at the edges far better than turf does.
A 35mm pile-height non-directional cricket turf was specified for the pitch strip. This pile height performs consistently for both pace and spin bowling and does not create the artificial pace variation that would mislead batters during training. White crease markings were inlaid directly into the turf using contrasting white fibre sections rather than painted on — a durable finish that survives heavy foot traffic and repeated ball strikes without wearing away.
Practice nets at both ends allow two simultaneous sessions — bowlers running up toward each net, batters at each end, no conflict between sessions. The net poles were specified as sectional galvanised steel — each section man-portable — drilled into the existing concrete with chemical anchors. No concrete footings, no base plates, nothing that required any wet work inside the site.
The crane was on the public road at 6 AM on Day 1, before office hours. Campus security had coordinated two access windows — one early morning, one in the evening — where the road-side crane operation would not block working traffic. Between those windows, the crew worked entirely within the site using material already hoisted in. Twelve days of this: hoist in the morning, install through the day, hoist again in the evening.
All images are illustrative placeholders. Final installation photographs and drone footage pending client approval.
The weekend cricket that had been happening at a rented ground six kilometres away shifted on-campus within a fortnight of handover. The commute had been the main reason participation was low — a 45-minute round trip in Mysore weekend traffic, added to what was supposed to be a lunch-hour or after-work session, made recreational cricket feel like a commitment most employees could not sustain. On-campus, the strip is a four-minute walk from any desk in either building.
Eight teams formed within two months. Enough for a structured league, which the recreation committee organised with minimal effort — one spreadsheet, one WhatsApp group, a shared calendar for the pitch. The Diwali corporate trophy was the first formal tournament, a round-robin across all eight teams, with the final played under emergency site lights borrowed from the facilities team. The recreation committee chairperson presented the trophy. He was also the one who had spotted the strip in the first place.
The weekday evenings filled up too. Informal bowling sessions in the practice nets after office hours, no organisation needed — people simply went there. The HR head, who had approved the project budget against some pushback from the finance team, presented the participation numbers at the following board review. Sports infrastructure, it turned out, was also a retention argument.
"Three vendors said it was not possible. I genuinely could not understand why — the space was there, the ground was solid, and people wanted to play. All that was missing was someone willing to figure out the logistics."
Office Recreation Committee Head, A Technology Campus, Mysore