The 'beautiful game' was how football legend Pele -- who would have turned 84 today -- chose to describe the sport he so passionately played. He would have frowned at the disdain with which it is being treated by the RTM Nagpur University which has made its own field unusable forcing players to practice on other grounds in the city.
There are very few football grounds in the city and Nagpur University's ground located on Amravati road is one of them. The ground has hosted the prestigious Santosh Trophy matches in the past but for the last three to four years, the ground has become a casualty to another sport as it has been converted into a synthetic athletic track.
Talking to Lokmat Times Big Ben Football Club coach Atul Neware said, football was played on the ground for the long time but for the past three to four years there has been no activity. "National-level athletes have already started practicing on the synthetic track but the university is not yet allowing football," he lamented.
Neware said football enthusiasts and the club had contacted concerned university authorities several times but to no avail. “They are waiting for some board meeting," he said, adding that the university had its own ground but was conducting inter-college football tournaments at other venues including Seth Kesarimal Porwal College at Kamptee and the Ishwar Deshmukh College of Physical Education ground at Nagpur. "We want football to resume at the university's own ground as early as possible so that players do not suffer,” he said.
The officiating director of RTMNU's Department of Sports and Physical Education Dr Vishakha Joshi admitted that sprinklers had been fixed on the ground to water the synthetic track. "The sprinkler system which covers the mid-portion of the ground is not working properly and we have requested maintenance," she informed, adding that a few football clubs had approached the department for resuming the game on the ground and a proposal has been drafted to be tabled in the board meeting.
Till this happens, the game and its lovers will continue to suffer.