Sena campus wing makes local pitch for univ hockey team

MUMBAI: Wary probables for the University of Mumbai hockey team, afraid that newly arrived players from Haryana would get into the squad ahead of them, sought the help of the Shiv Sena’s campus wing, Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS), to get the team they desired. The resultant 18-member squad that played on Thursday included only three of the five Haryana players, while the BVS, whose affairs are monitored by Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya, declared that it had not asked for a Marathi quota on the team.

Following uncertainty over the announcement of the team till the eve of the first match in the West Zone inter-varsity tournament, the team’s probables approached the Sena’s campus wing on Wednesday to get help in pressuring officials to announce a team. BVS chief Abhijit Panse said they didn’t demand the inclusion of Marathis, but asked for the inclusion of Mumbaikars irrespective of language, caste and religion.

The resultant team had only three Maharashtrians and on Thursday won 20-0 against Aurangabad University.

Till the eve of the match, the team was not announced. Also, the first match would be on BHA’s artificial turf, but for a whole month the camp was at Khalsa College, King’s Circle, which had no such facility. Furthermore, the varsity’s physical education department ignored the three-member selection panel assigned by the BHA. Instead, a former Olympian who was neither appointed as coach nor was part of the selection committee, was calling the shots.

The probables then decided to seek political intervention. “We had no option. We were dealing with Olympians, sportspersons with repute and clout among the city’s hockey fraternity. We needed someone who could match their power,” said a player. “We knew it was not ethical for us to gang up against such seniors. But all our pleas were falling on deaf ears,” another player added.

On Thursday the coach, Laxman Rao, who had been training the team for the past month, was relieved of his duties. “That was totally unfair. Rao sir has been with us for the entire duration of the camp and he is treated this way on match day,” said one player.

Panse said the BVS’s stir for the inclusion of locals might help it strike a “rapport” with non-Marathis. “There were complaints that students from Haryana and Punjab enroll themselves in Khalsa , which is seen as a hockey powerhouse, to get a berth in the varsity team. So, Mumbaikars who play excellent hockey are left out.”

Bala Kadam, BVS chief coordinator, said the players who came to see him represented “multi-cultural India”. “There was a north Indian, a Muslim and a Catholic. They feared the team would be packed with one particular group. We went to Khalsa to sort things out. There was no question of coercing the selectors.”