Approaching exams and lesser number of competitions have left few takers for Delhi University's annual sports event, which will be held in March
Approaching exams and lesser number of competitions have left few takers for Delhi University's annual sports event, which will be held in March
The Commonwealth Games that the city hosted last year had taken a toll of Delhi University's sports calendar. For the first time in the university's history, no inter-college sports tournaments took place during an academic year. 
Bad pitch: Playground at Khalsa College in North Campus was left in a
poor state after the CWG organising committee had taken it for the Games.
File pic
Now, the vice-chancellor has promised to host some inter-college games in March this year, which otherwise are held in September -October. The games are likely to coincide with the practical examinations that are held in the university at that time.
A meeting was held on February 22 under the chairmanship of Sudarshan Pathak, advisor, Delhi University Sports Council (DUSC) and sports heads of various colleges to decide on the dates of the inter-college events. "The exact schedule of the games hasn't been decided yet but it is clear that the tournament this time would be a sort of short festival as all the 22-25 games cannot be organised in a single month," said Pathak.
The students might however not be able to perform well during the games as eight stadiums had been taken from the varsity to function as training grounds for the CWG, leaving them with no grounds to practice. The stadiums are still to be handed over to the University.
"Organising this inter-college tournament has now been reduced to just a formality. Also, I am afraid many colleges would not be able to participate since we had no grounds to practice till now," said S K Chakrabarty, Dean and Prof, Physical Education, St Stephen's College, DU. "I have no idea how the aquatics event would take place as students have not stepped inside the pools since the CWG began. Swimming pools across the city were closed due to the mega sporting event," he added.
Even the students are not enthusiastic about the decision as most of them said they would be busy preparing for their practical examinations. Raghav Mittal, a B Sc (H) student at Hindu College, who spends around Rs 30-35000 on cricket coaching including membership fee of the club outside university, is a sad person as there will be no cricket even in this 'short festival'. "Cricket is my passion. My parents spend so much on my coaching and I spend most of my time practising. It is bad. First we cannot use the college grounds and then we are not even able to play for inter-college event," he said.
Vikas Sinha, a final year student of Hansraj College is also depressed about the zero-sports situation in the campus. "I have played in all the inter-college tournaments since I enrolled in the college. This year we had to go out to far-off stadiums to practise everyday and now I feel all the energy and resources have been wasted," he said.
Get set go
Out of total 22-25 games, only six events will be played :u00a0
* Athletics (M&W) (Running, Jumping and Throws)
* Cross Country (M&W)
* Chess (M&W)
* Judo (M&W)
* Aquatics (M&W) (Swimming, Diving, Water Polo)
* Shooting (M&W)
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