Sports facilities in Warangal a far cry

With the government turning a blind eye to the sports facilities and infrastructure at the district level, the fate of untapped pool of talent continues to limp in a state of limbo. While those fortunate to be in the State capital Hyderabad abounded by modern facilities is making the headlines, the sports talent hailing from districts is languishing on the backbenches.

Warangal, despite being the biggest city in Telangana after Hyderabad, is no different. For decades, the young talent in the district is deprived of their due, this despite umpteen numbers of players from the region have represented state, nationals and international level tournaments and won quite a few medals.

The appalling state of facilities in Warangal sports hostel located on the premises of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JNS) where 102 boys and girls are stationed hardly generates any confidence that these inmates could produce the desired results. Shockingly, the inmates don’t even have track suites for the last few years.

The track and field facilities in the JNS grounds and the indoor arena for athletics and other sports are just good enough for the sportspersons to excel at the State level. Over the years, district has earned name by producing even international players in gymnastics, athletics, handball and basketball.

The indoor stadium boasts six badminton courts. While the need of the hour is hova courts, all the existing courts are wooden. With the wooden courts are no longer in vogue at national and international level badminton tourneys, the players are finding it difficult to adapt to the conditions when they participate at the highest level meets.

The handball players are also have similar problem since there is no synthetic turf here. Players who practice here in open air have their task cut out when they play the nationals indoors. It may be noted here that nationals are played only indoors. By the time the players adapt to the new conditions, there are well and truly out of the tourney.

“Albeit we have highly talented athletes, the results are not in line with the desired level due to lack of infrastructure and facilities. It’s hard to catch up those players who practise on synthetic turfs. A few days of practise on synthetic turfs just before the nationals or internationals doesn’t help the cause of players,” district sports development officer G Indira told The Hans India.

Interestingly, the State government has not allotted even a single rupee for the sports development in the last few years. The sources say that all the expenditure incurred for the running of various sports and payment to the coaches is borne by the income earned through ‘pay and play’ and the rents on JNS. It may be noted here that the sports authority earns a considerable amount of income through swimming and badminton under the pay-and-play mode. This apart, the authority also earns a bit by renting the JNS to public meetings and devotional discourses.

The other agonising truth is that majority of coaches here are under pay-and-play scheme and they get a pay ranging between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 a month. There are only two permanent coaches, including the DSDO while three others are under the contract basis.

Badminton Association of Telangana (BAT) State joint secretary Prof. P Ramesh Reddy said: “Lack of academies and qualified coaches remains the stumbling block in the way of sports development. Take the case of badminton, there is a lot of talent around but only those who could afford are turning to Hyderabad where there are quite a few private academies. None of the Telangana district has a government academy but for the one at Saroornagar.”

K Sarangapani, a senior athletics trainee and mentor to Dronacharya awardee Nagapuri Ramesh, said: “It’s been a couple of years since the Central government has announced a synthetic track, which may cost around Rs 7 crore, for Warangal. Thereafter, there was no news about it. But for the one at Gachibowli stadium, there is not even a single synthetic track in the State, including in Andhra Pradesh.”

Meanwhile, there is an allegation that all the badminton courts in the outdoor stadium are occupied by the citizens who access play under the ‘pay-and-play’ facility are causing inconvenience to young and upcoming badminton players at the indoor stadium in accessing the courts and denying them an opportunity. Showing their torn-up shoes, the inmates of the sports hostel said that they have to make do with the facilities available to them.