A meeting was organized between our Hon'ble Sports Minister Shri. V. Abdurahiman and the Ambassador of Republic of Cuba, Alejandro Simancas Marin at the minister's office on 03/07/24 . The meeting was an next stage talk regarding the "Cuba-Kerala Sports Collaborations" in the coming years. Shri. Pranabjyoti Nath IAS, Secretary, Sports and Youth Affairs and Shri. Vishnuraj P. IAS, Director, Sports and Youth Affairs Kerala were also part of this meeting.

Hon'ble Sports Minister Shri. V. Abdurahiman felicitated all the students who obtained full A+ plus in SSLC examination from G. V. Raja Sports School. Shri Vishnuraj P IAS, Director of Sports & Youth Affairs was the chief guest of the function. The School Principal Dr. M K Surendran, Headmistress Rahula Devi O V, PTA President Anil P C and other teachers were also present at the program.

One of the main suggestions that came up in the International Sports Summit Kerala ’24 was to start conducting professional leagues at the college level. The Government of Kerala is seeing this idea as a great source to promote sports across state and also as a revenue source. In these circumstance , there was a meeting between Smt. R Bindu, Hon’ble Minister of Higher Education of Kerala and Shri. V. Abdurahiman, Hon’ble Minister for Sports of Kerala regarding this matter and in this meeting it was decided to create a committee for making up a detailed plan of this project as early as possible. It was also decided to include various e-sports events as part of this league. The first edition of the League will be having popular sports like Cricket, Football, Athletics etc and it will be followed in the exact manner of the current university level championships.

Karumkulam Grama Panchayat became the overall champions in the Aravam Coastal Games – 2024 organized jointly by the District Administration and the Sports and Youth affairs Department for the fishermen of the coastal region of the Thriruvananthapuram district. Shri. Rajeev Kumar Choudhary IAS, Director of Sports and Youth Affairs, inaugurated the prize-giving ceremony of the Games.

Prizes were distributed to the Panchayat who became the overall champions in each category and to the best player who scored the most points in the games. Both Men and Women teams from various Local Self-Government participated in four different disciplines namely Kabaddi, Football, Tug of War and Volleyball. Teams from Poovar, Karumkulam, Kottukal, Chirayinkeezhu, Karod, Vettur and Thiruvananthapuram corporation participated in the two-day competition at Adimalatura Jai Christ Football Ground and Pulluvila Leo XIII School Ground conducted on February 10th &11th .

The first stadium (Kallikkad Grama Panchayath Stadium) under the One Panchayath One Playground Scheme has been officially inaugurated by the Hon'ble Sports Minister Shri. V. Abdurahiman on 30/1/2024.

We are witnessing an unprecedented growth in the area of infrastructure development in the field of sports in the entire state. Development of playgrounds at the rural level, stadiums with modern facilities for the development of professional sports, synthetic tracks, other required facilities, swimming pool, sports tourism projects suitable for the development of sports, sports training centers for students, sports medicine centers and sports science centers are being developed in the state. Asset development works worth around Rs 380 crore from the state government's plan fund and Rs 1000 crore with KIFB funding are currently undergoing in the Sports Department.

Kallikkad Grama Panchayath stadium is a project worth of 1 crore which is included in the One Panchayath, One Playground Scheme. The renovation of the above said stadium was done by taking 50 Lakhs from MLA ADS fund and the rest 50 Lakhs was taken from plan fund.

The following work has been done as part of the renovation of the stadium : the work of constructing a multi-court around the ground, construction of R R retaining wall, construction of R C C Drainage system, construction of goal post on east, west and north sides of the ground, construction of chain link fencing on the north side of the ground, general electrification of the ground, construction of toilet cum changing room on the ground and fencing with nylon net on the east-west side of the ground.

Programme Schedule

Kerala wins the first Title

The Kerala quartet comprising of GM S L Naraynan, IM Jubin Jimmy, WIM Nimmy A George and FIDE master Goutham Krishna H defeated the Cubian team on cumulative points to win the title in the first Che International Chess Festival at Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala bagged 42.5 points while the Cubans managed to bag 37.5 points.

Kerala and Cuba join hands in the arena of sports by conducting an International Chess Festival from Nov 16th to Nov 20th at Thiruvanathapuram. The Grand Masters from Cuba : Carlos Daniel Albarnaz, Elier Miranda Mesa, Dylan Isidro Berdayes Asan, Lisandra Ordaz Valdes and the Grand Masters of India such as Pragyananda, S L Narayanan, Nihal Sarin and R B Ramesh will be meeting head to head. The idea for the Kerala Cuba "Che" International Chess Festival, 2023 emerged following the Hon'ble Chief Minister's visit to Cuba. Inspired by the fruitful discussions during the visit, the Government of Kerala has decided to host this festival.

The festival was officially inaugurated by our Hon'ble Chief Minister on 16th November,2023 and was carried out successfully over the period of 4 days at Thiruvananthapuram and was concluded successfully at Hyatt Regency Trivandrum on 20th November,2023.

The Foundation Stone for Kayikabhavan has been laid by the Hon`ble Sports Minister of Kerala , Shri. V. Abdurahiman on 25/10/2023.