Absence of spare hockey turf hurts Ranchi's chances

RANCHI: The Astroturf Hockey Stadium at Morhabadi has been drawing the biggest crowd in India for the Hockey India League (HIL) matches since the beginning of the tournament in 2011.
Despite such popularity of the game in the city, Hockey Jharkhand (HJ) cannot bid to host an international tournament as there is only one astroturf in the city.
As per rules laid out by the game's global governing body FIH, a stadium must have two synthetic turfs to be able to host an international tie.But the stadium at Morhabadi, opened in 1991 and revamped in 2009, has only one astroturf.
"The FIH mandate is quite logical as matches are held back to back in a tournament. So it is important that a team waiting for its match gets the scope to warm up even if one match is on," Asunta Lakra, former Indian women's captain and vice-president of HJ, said.
"If the practice turf is far from the main pitch, the players will cool down by the time they take to the field," she said.
But an astroturf costs around Rs 4 crore.
HJ officials said, that a practice turf needs the entire infrastructure as that of the main pitch.
"It needs floodlights and sprinklers to keep the the turf seasoned," an official said.
However, the practice turf as Astroturf Hockey Stadium is half the size of the main turf and does not have sprinklers. Though South Eastern Railway laid an astroturf in 2015 at Hatia, it is far from the stadium.
HJ officials are citing example the of Sardar Vallabbhai Patel International Hockey Stadium in Raipur, Chattisgarh.
"The stadium was inaugurated in 2015 and hosted the FIH Hockey World League earlier this year. Our stadium has many similarities with that one and their seating capacity of 4,000 people is less than us but they scored over us because of the spare turf," an official said.
An informal request for laying another turf has been made to chief minister Raghubar Das.
"The state government is the custodian of the stadium," JH president Bholanath Singh said.
"We are sending a formal request to the chief minister and sports minister Amar Kumar Bauri, hoping that the state responds in the affirmative."