Hockey in Bengaluru to be on hold until vaccine is out

The city of Bengaluru which has been devoid of any hockey action since the beginning of the coronavirus imposed lockdown might continue to stare down the same road, according to a report in the Times of India.

“There are various issues we have to factor in before restarting the weekend coaching program and the calendar of events. Given the prevailing circumstances, we don’t want to rush into anything and regret it later. As things stand, we will wait for the situation to improve before taking a call on restarting hockey,” said the secretary of Bengaluru Hockey Association (BHA), K. Krishnamurthy, to TOI.

While normally the BHA has a tight calendar with events like its own league, invitational tournaments and inter-school tournaments, the association was forced to cancel the current season owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

What is hurting more is the fact that even if the BHA is to resume sporting activities, they are not confident of having many participants.

“A bulk of our players are from Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) and they are yet to return. The same is the case with schools and colleges. None of them have begun training. Many of the players, who participate in leagues, are working professionals and with work from home being the norm, they don’t have time to resume training,” said Krishnamurthy.

Krishnamurthy believed that the situation will continue to be the same till a vaccine is available in the market.

“There is a lack of clarity on where teams stand as of now. Even in normal situations, we sometimes have to beg teams to participate. But now with tighter budgets in all sectors, we don’t know if there is any budget for sports. Until a vaccine is out in the market, the situation will continue to be fluid,” he said.

“Once the situation heads towards normalcy, we plan to have a packed calendar with all our tournaments,” he added.

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