Pickleball destination: Ice Water arena in EA

AFTER a successful national meet in Ahmedabad last month, pickleball, especially in Tamil Nadu, is receiving a major boost with the launch of the Ice Water sporting arena the outdoor sporting facility has three pickleball courts along with a Futsal and box cricket arenas at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai on Sunday.

- GOMESH S

The state-of-the-art facility, spread across 20,000 sq. ft, comes at a time when the sport is getting a whole new set of fans and players from across age-groups in the country. K Mohit Kumar, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Pickleball Association, is understandably delighted. "Visibility wise, it is going to be huge. The Express Avenue has been very helpful to the TNPA throughout. Creating awareness is very important because pickleball is a new sport. Even today, one per cent of Tamil Nadu population do not know the sport. This is a very big step for awareness," he said, before adding "this is ideal for a small tournament format, for a league format. We are hoping to do a TN league that carries over two weekends." The popularity factor cannot be understated. What started as a community sport in the USA now has 80 off