Cricket Ganesha Temple in Chennai Annanagar
Cricket Pillayar Temple in Chennai, Annanagar Cricket Ganesha Temple is a temple dedicated to Lord Ganesha whereas Ganapathi is appeared as a Cricket player.
A temple dedicated to Ganesha with 11 heads symbolising the 11 players of a cricket team has been set up in Annanagar in Chennai.
This temple was started by Ramakrishnan who is a Ganesha devotee and a cricket lover. The temple has been named Cricket Pillayar Temple ( In tamil, Pillayar means Ganesh)
Check out this interesting article published in a newspaper :
With the World Cup fever gripping fans all over the world, Chennaittes are thronging the ‘Cricket Ganesha’ temple here where a Ganesh idol has been portrayed as a cricketer.
The presiding deity of the temple, seen with eleven heads, symbolising the ‘team eleven’ and two other Ganesha idols in batting and bowling postures, has been attracting a huge crowd for the past two weeks.
The temple was set up at Annanagar in the heart of the city six years ago.
The eleven heads are made out of a single stone, with the centre face being a larger one compared to the five on either sides.
An ardent devotee of Lord Ganesha and a cricket lover, Ramakrishnan who works as company secretary in a private firm, constructed the temple.
Even as the temple was under construction, he had prayed to Ganesha during an India-Australia match at Kolkata following which India from the verge of a collapse, made a miraculous win, he said.
He said in that particular match, not only India won but also several records were created. Sachin Tendulkar crossed his 10,000 runs in test cricket, Harbajan performed a hat-trick besides V V Lakshman scoring 281 and Rahul Dravid 180.
That match also ended Australia’s winning streak, he said.
“I believe that it happened due to Lord Ganesha’s blessings and hence I named the temple as ‘cricket Pillayar (Ganesh) temple’.