Senior men’s hockey camp returns to Bangalore after three years
India’s senior men hockey camp returns to Bangalore after a gap of three years with a total of 103 attendants, comprising of 43 players from the development squad, whereas the rest of the 60, including the key feasible players as well as coaches.
In order to accommodate this huge number, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), South Centre, is working very hard day and night to meet up with the arrangements until July 1, the day the camp is to begin.
These preparations paced up after yesterday, June 27, meeting of the SAI officials. The cleaning up of the synthetic turfs was underway along with the permission to players for using the second turf too, which lacks the water sprinkling facility.
This decision was backed by the fact that the large number of players will fall short of a single turf for practice. As far as the lack of watering facility is concerned, an official said assured to take care of the matter by doing it manually.
Moreover, a newly inaugurated men’s hostel will be furnished with the required furniture, like bed and television, to be brought from the old hostel to meet the current need of the camp.
This camp will be run under the watchful eyes of 12 coaches until July 31.
Despite insufficient quality of the floodlights of the venue, the officials thought of testing and said, "The lights are only 300 lux while we need 1200 lux for matches to be played. But we are setting right the focus and the angle of the lights so that
practice can go on in the night."
According to sources, "Hockey India (HI) did not want Delhi to be their training venue and so, the choice was among Bangalore, Patiala and Bhopal. We were reluctant initially but said yes to the camp after Patiala and Bhopal pulled out. The number of campers
here is 220 as of now. Once the hockey players join, it will go up to 325."
A few years back, SAI South Centre earned a bad name when the women hockey players complained about the poor food and accommodation. Therefore, this time SAI will be hiring extra cooks for the camps in order to avoid any further criticism.
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