Viva Kerala coach A.M. Sreedharan has been frustrated by the heavy rainfall in Goa which postponed his team's first I-League match against Salgaocar.
"It had been raining heavily here for the past two days and that made the officials postpone our match and the Sporting vs Air India match also. I am disappointed as it could have helped me in assessing my team as we haven’t played in any pre-season tournaments prior to the I-League," he told.
Viva Kerala’s next opponents will be the defending champions Churchill Brothers. "The rain has eased off in the morning and I hope we will be able to play against Churchill on 6th, though it all depends on the ground conditions”, Sreedharan added.
The team has been practising under rainy conditions as the coach feels the team should go into the match well prepared. “I don’t want the team to go for a competitive match without preparations and that’s why we are still practising in these difficult conditions” he pointed out.
The only casualty in the team is striker Shibin Lal V.K. who has been down with a fever.
Source: Indianfootball.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 4 October 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.