FOR the last three days, the Divisional Sports Complex at Shastrinagar, Yerawada, has seen a footfall of nearly 500 players between the age group of 15 and 20 years accompanied by their parents to participate in the selection rounds of the state-level boxing tournament, organised by Pune District Boxing Association in association with District Sports Council and District Sports Office. However, the poor facilities and the condition of the venue — an under-construction building — nowhere matched the level of competitions it was witnessing. One could see construction material lying around on the premises, with participants sitting on the floor with their bags due to lack of sitting arrangement. The area around the boxing ring, too, was surrounded by mud and dirt. The matches were conducted from September 15 to 17. The state-level bouts will take place in Nagpur from September 25 to 27. “If this is the condition of a sports facility in a city like Pune then one can imagine what must be the condition of sports facilities in rural areas. I was appalled by the poor facilities and mismanagement. There were limited chairs and no sitting area. Most parents and kids had to sit on the floor in mud with their bags. The kids were asked to report empty stomach at 8 am in the morning and till about 12 pm the officials were busy checking the weight of the children. A child of 14-15 years cannot stay empty stomach for such long hours,” says the father of a participating girl boxer on the condition of anonymity. “If they get to know we are complaining, they will manipulate the results and my child will suffer,” he added. Another parent mentioned that on the first day of the tournament, only one toilet was opened for girls and the boys had to go in the bushes nearby. There was no changing room on the first day of the selection matches. Since the building was under construction and did not have its toilet, the kids had to use the toilet of the other building in the same premises. Bharatkymar Vhaval, general secretary of Pune District Boxing Association, says, “The other building in the Sports Complex which is fully constructed has a badminton court and hence we could not conduct the competitions there. We do not have government-owned venue dedicated to boxing in Pune and private boxing venues have heavy rent. With the limited fund, it’s been a challenge to organise the three-day event. With great difficulty we will be able to pay the officials organising the event. We also had to set aside the amount for light and mike system.” Surprisingly, the total budget sanctioned by the District Sports Officer for conducting three-day selection rounds was just Rs 15,000. Vhaval says that over a month ago the Association was told that they could use the premises to organise the selection matches. The under-construction building, he says, had remained closed for a long time. “We cleaned the place and set up the boxing ring,” he says, adding that the boxing ring owned by the Association costs around Rs 5 lakh, which was sponsored under MLA fund. Setting up the ring at any venue and dismantling it with the help of workers and technicians costs a lot. “It’s not easy to arrange this kind of amount. We have to depend on the District Sports Office. We have demanded that the budget should be increased but will have to wait till our demand gets sanctioned,” said Vhaval.
