Railways captain Nagpurian Niyaz Rahim under whose leaderhsip Railways won 38th Surjit Hockey Tournament in Jalandhar beating Punjab and Sind bank Delhi 3-1 is feeling very proud but at the same time b he has expressed his disappointment over the lack of hockey infrastructure in the Orange City.
Talking to Lokmat Times from Jalandhar after clinching title victory Rahim who has been representing Railways for last ten years and leading the side for three years said, “ Being a Nagpurian I am more concerned about Vidarbha hockey. There is no dearth of talent in the region but lack of infrastructure and dispute between two factions of Vidarhba Hockey Associaiton (VHA) have severely affected our hockey.”
Midfielder Rahim who is posted at Secunderabad in South Central Railways questioned if Chandrapur would have an astroturf then why not Nagpur?. “ Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is from Nagpur. Till then VHA failed to get required facilities under his tenure in Nagpur. Due to lack of facilities, the future of our Vidarbha players is in the dark and that's why they are going outside for training purposes. The internal dispute among the hockey association offcials is spoiling the career of budding and talented players”, he said.
Lost Olympic chance due to lack of support
Niyaz Rahim was one of the hockey team probables for Tokyo Olympics and also attended the camp but unfortunately, he was not selected in the final team. Talking about it he said, “I had attended the camp but didn't get any support and was dropped. Now, I am 30-year-old. I think more than me if the players of 16-17 age group are concentrated then the country will get more talented players. But I would like once again to say everything depends on infrastructure”, he said.