Sporting activities go for a toss in Hyderabad with lockdown

Coaches say it is tough to keep players motivated

Hyderabad: With the State Government announcing a 10-day lockdown from Wednesday due to rise in Covid-19 cases, it has forced the closure of sports academies and camps. Most of the Stadia in the city wear a deserted look since three days.

This second lockdown has dealt a big blow to the sports fraternity. Renowned coach CV Nagaraj, who runs The School of Power Tennis, said it is difficult for both players and coaches in the current situation. “Yes, the situation is pretty bad. I don’t see any tennis tournaments happening at least till July or August. It is tough for players. We have advised them to do fitness training at home as we have closed down our academy for 10 days. As of now, we are following government guidelines,” said the veteran coach.

Somnath Ghosh, the table tennis coach who runs Somnath Ghosh MLR UTT Academy, said there was a drastic downfall in the number of trainees since the sports resumed after the first wave of pandemic last year. “The sporting activities started returning to normalcy after the first wave. But with the second wave, we are back to square one. The number of students who were coming to the academy fell drastically. This is a very bad time. It is not about players, we coaches are also kind of demoralised.”

Meanwhile, Ravi Kumar, the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium administrator, said they closed the training facilities for the students in the lockdown. He also said there were not many coming to train as well. “A coach in each discipline used to have 90 to 100 students here in LB Stadium. But now the parents are scared and only seven to eight students in each discipline are coming. The current situation has created panic among both students and parents.”

Kumar said thanks to the lockdown and Covid-19, we are not able to the hold the summer camps and thereby there is possibility of failing to identify a good talent. “This is the second consecutive year without summer camps. We identify talented students from these summer camps and join them in advanced training camps. But with no summer camps, we are giving admissions to whoever is interested.”

RSR Murthy of St John’s Academy said that there will be no summer camps this year in view of the pandemic. “Usually, during this part of the year, there is a sea of activity in all cricket camps. But with the lockdown and the rise of Covid-19, it is not possible to conduct any camps,” he said.

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