Archers Asharani Horo and Sumanlata Murmu residing at Ranchi’s Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel left for Jamshedpur on Sunday to participate in the Senior National Archery Championship beginning on Monday sans their travelling and diet allowances (TA and DA).
This is the sad but identical tale of most of the players of SAI who represent at state, national or sometimes at the international levels. Despite being trained at this Central Government sports authority, they are forced to rely on their parents’ financial support. “Per day meal charges while travelling is Rs 175 which is not given to us for last one year. Moreover, we are not given the fare for train or bus during our sports tour outside the state,” said a senior splinter at this SAI on the condition of anonymity.
The hostel even misses clean drinking water facility and the practice arena the mechanised arrangement for archery, athletics and volleyball here. All the five events are practiced at single venue of Birsa Munda Football stadium. “The venue is often occupied by the state government officials for organising cultural and other sports activities
creating hurdle in our daily scheduled practice,” said a player residing in the hostel. Mistreatment of this kind was raised in the Winter session of Assembly wherein a lot of players left alone on their fate without reserved berths and food to take part in a competition in Jammu and Kashmir. Presently, this SAI centre trains around 150 sportspersons including male and female players of hockey, football, archery, athletics along with girl’s volleyball between the age genres 14 to 18 years in the junior cadre and from 18 to 20 years in the senior cadre.
A senior player mentioned that flood lights of the stadium are not switched on during their evening practice but glow when a State Government programme is organised here in night. Narrating more about their woes another player said, “There is no sweeper in girls and boys wards. Moreover, athletes and archers have to buy playing equipments on their own expenses. There is no established medical unit in this vicinity. It is not that the coaches and in-charge of this centre are not aware about these loopholes. No one takes the initiative to solve.”
Also, the players complained of irregular water supply and lack of security measures within their hostel. The future of these players seems in doldrums as there is no ‘Excellency sports centre’ for those 20 years plus sports youth of SAI who fail to grab a Government job or maintain their meritorious record.
“Almost all the states of India have this Excellency centre. After 20 years, a player can stay in SAI for one more year only if he or she has bagged an international achievement. Else, the player has to return home. Most of the states have Excellency centres where 20 years age plus players can practice and stay. It is not for those SAI passouts who have been able to get a sports quota job in government departments. Our State does not have this centre. So, we are hopeless about our future,” quoted a senior athlete.
Contesting all these genuine difficulties of the players, SAI Ranchi Incharge Sushil Verma shouted, “The TA and DA are managed by respective sports federations. This is a rubbish allegation. Our hostellers are regularly funded through their sports associations.” When contacted a coach said, “As you can see, none of the SAI centres provide one multi purpose ground like ours where players of all the game events can practice comfortably. Water supply is a matter of electricity not ours,” as if these woes are too less to be discussed leave alone to be bothered.