Karnataka - Madikeri   

New synthetic hockey turf to be inaugurated in September

Madikeri: The newly laid synthetic hockey surface here will be inaugurated in September, according to a decision taken at the monitoring committee meeting of the Sports Authority of India ( SAI) here on Wednesday.

Laying of the Rs. 3.5-crore synthetic turf brought from Australia was completed last year. The playing surface was not thrown open for national and international competitions on the grounds that it was not certified by a technical team from the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The team from Australia inspected the ground here three months ago and certified it as “fit for play”.

The playground is leased by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore, in the name of the Coorg Hockey Association (CHA) whereas the synthetic turf was laid by the SAI. Discussions at Wednesday’s meeting focussed on the issue of sharing the ground facility by the SAI and the CHA, Prince Karumbaiah, Administrative Officer of the SAI, Madikeri, told The Hindu.

Union Sports Minister M.S. Gill and the Director-General of the SAI from New Delhi would be invited for the inauguration, probably after the second week of September, he said.

The synthetic playing surface would be shared between the SAI and the CHA in a manner that it does not clash with each other’s schedule. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Commissioner, K.H. Ashwathanarayana Gowda, attended by G. Kishore, Regional Director, SAI, Bangalore; president of the Karnataka State Hockey Association (KSHA) R.K. Shetty; president of the CHA Mohan Aiyappa; its former president Kumar Appachu, among others.

The CHA representatives brought up the issue of construction of a Club House at one portion of the ground. The SAI authorities would request the UAS, Bangalore, to cede nearly two acres of land in front of the SAI hostel here for utilising it as the practice/warm up ground before the commencement of the matches, Mr. Karumbaiah said. He had proposed for the construction of an additional open well as water from the existing open well would suffice only for watering the surface up to a maximum of three matches. (Water is sprinkled before the start of the match, at the interval and again after the end of the match to keep the synthetic surface in good, playing condition). Construction of gallery, players’ change rooms were also mooted by the SAI in the meeting.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

New synthetic hockey turf to be inaugurated in September

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu