Players part ways with Vidarbha, join Mumbai, Mah, Ind Rlys teams
By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Apr 15, 2016
HAS the mass exodus of hockey players from Vidarbha started? It seems so. Three current hockey players from Vidarbha and another player, who had represented Vidarbha Hockey Association (VHA) some time in his career, have parted ways with their host association in search of greener pastures.
Dhyanchand Hockey Academy’s Wasim Khan and Aakib Rahim along with another former city player Irshad Mirza have found place in the 18-member strong Mumbai team which will take part in the Hockey India’s 6th Senior National Hockey Championship (Division A). The meet begins at Saifai in Uttar Pradesh from April 19.
Another player, Gomed Patil, has found a berth in the Maharashtra team which will also be taking part in the senior nationals.
Patil, who represented City Police, Nagpur, was selected in the Vidarbha squad for current nationals (Division B) but according to a VHA official, he did not get relieving letter from Maharashtra Police hence did not turn up for Vidarbha team. The midfielder was replaced by Thakurdas Goplani in the Vidarbha team that was thrashed badly in the tournament.
Wasim and Aakib joined Mumbai Port Trust five months back after winning hearts of the selectors. Interestingly both had played the VHA senior division league and won individual prizes for the exemplary performances.
Irshad Mirza, another player from Nagpur, is working with the Western Railways and is a regular in Mumbai hockey.
Niyaz Rahim, also a former player of Dhyanchand, is working with Southern Railways and has been selected for the fourth time in Indian Railways team.
The exodus is hampering the performance of Vidarbha team which was evident in the dismal performance at Saifai.
Though VHA officials are happy that players are getting opportunity to perform at higher level they feel that the players should choose between the two before appearing for the selections trials.
“It is good that our players are finding place in other teams too. We also want to see our players reaching greater heights and play for the country. But at the same time some action should be taken against those erring players who appear for trials and then refuse to be part of Vidarbha,” VHA Joint Secretary Pramod Jain told ‘The Hitavada’.
“Players appear for trials at Mumbai as well as Vidarbha. This should be stopped. Even Mumbai and Maharashtra should seek No Objection Certificates from the host association before allowing them to take part in selection trials,” he added.
Jain kept harping about the technical aspect but the fact is players are getting very little opportunities to show their talent in Nagpur. Lack of astro turf is also hampering development of the game in the region.
“We hardly get a chance to play on astro turf. There is no turf in entire Vidarbha whereas today’s hockey is played only on turf all over the world. We can’t become victim of dirty politics of Vidarbha hockey,” a player, on the condition of anonymity, told their plight.
“More players would move away if the situation does not change,” he added.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that district associations including Amravati, Akola and Aurangabad, affiliated with VHA for several decades, have joined Hockey Maharashtra.
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