The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Chak De is just a Bollywood story

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 03, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Chak De is just a Bollywood story

Ravi Shankar D.

The hockey stadium is in a state of disrepair

Playing surface is patchy and has been stitched up repeatedly
Efforts to replace Astroturf make little progress

Bangalore: A decade ago, the Karnataka State Hockey Association (KSHA) got its own stadium thanks to the National Games. The stadium at Akkithimmanahalli (near the Baldwin’s Girls School) was equipped with a synthetic pitch and hockey players in the city were delighted they had a modern arena and the game would certainly improve by leaps and bounds. For about seven years it was a golden period at the hockey stadium.

There is no doubt that the hockey stadium is one of the most often used playgrounds in the city. Over the last 10 years, the KSHA has conducted tournaments at the stadium practically every day of the year. Apart from the usual league matches, it has been the venue for women’s tournaments, schools’ tournament, the Army and club tournaments as well as a number of national level matches and a couple of international matches. KSHA installed floodlights so that matches could be played in the late evening. It constructed a club house, added on a gymnasium, a gazebo and entertainment hall for private functions. The hockey stadium, in short, was buzzing with activity.

Disrepair

Sadly, the main part of the stadium is now in disrepair. With thousands of matches played on the Astroturf, the playing surface has become patchy in parts and has been stitched up repeatedly. Over the last couple of years, efforts have been made to provide some decent playing conditions to the players till the new Astroturf is commissioned but getting it seems to be a Herculean task.

The KSHA has been negotiating with the Government and the Sports Authority of India for the past three years to have the Astroturf replaced but has made very little progress. By the time the Association makes any headway with the Director of Youth Services and Sports, the Commissioner of this Department moves on thanks to transfers.

What the authorities fail to realise is that KSHA cannot stage any international matches because of the poor conditions prevailing at the stadium. The floodlights need to increase the capacity of the lights to about 1300 lux from the current 400 lux capacity. In fact the Super Division Championship has been suffering because many of the participating teams have a number of international players who flatly refuse to play in such deplorable conditions.

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