At National School Games, matches finish at 5:30am!
MUMBAI: “I think there is so much time, rules probably need to be looked at, I mean it’s 2 am; you can’t be playing cricket at 2 ‘o’clock.” That’s how Australian all-rounder Nathan Coulter-nile had reacted at the post-match press conference moments after his former side Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator of the 2017 Indian Premier League.
Coulter-nile should perhaps thank his lucky stars that he wasn’t playing badminton at the 64th National School Games, held in Aurangabad from December 30-Jan 2. For if he was, he might have had to stay up till 5:30am to play and expected to report again by 9:30am. And then made to wait an hour before being allowed to take the court. While waiting, “players who don’t’ turn up when their names are being announced will be deemed to have lost their matches,” would be played on the public address system.
That is how it happened at the Divisional Sports Complex where competition was held for the under-14 and under-19 agegroups. “Matches were to get underway at around 9am on January 1. Instead, the authorities delayed it until 12-12:30 because of inaugurations and other things. Once the team events got over the organisers didn’t start the individual events. I remember Maharashtra was playing in one of the courts and despite other courts being empty, referees and umpires sat down to witness the match and not conduct other matches,” said Ashutosh Satyam Jha, general manager of Vidya Bharti, one of the teams.
In a video shot by Uttar Pradesh team manager Naim Ahmed, which he claims was filmed at around 3:30am, students are seen sleeping inside the stadium while matches were on.
“When I left at that hour, several students were sleeping inside the stadium. At this time of the year, it’s cold and there are players who’ve fallen ill. I went up to the organisers urging them to make alternate arrangements but they kept dilly-dallying. My team’s last match only got over by 5:06 in the morning,” said Ahmed.
Jha also said though accommodation for teams was made at the stadium hostel, there was confusion late on Wednesday night with several teams asked to vacate rooms.
The organisers didn’t take calls from this paper or return them. Ashok Giri, the district sports officer of Aurangabad, said: “These (scheduling) are decisions taken by the organisers connected to the School Games Federation. I’m the organising secretary of the competition but such decisions are taken by the technical committee. I have heard that matches went on till at least 4-5 in the morning but I don’t know why.”