The Centre had made it clear last month that social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious, political functions and other congregations will be permitted with a ceiling of 100 persons, with effect from Sept. 21, 2020.
Keeping this in mind, top brass of the Sports Authority of Telangana State convened a meeting on Monday at Lal Bahadur Stadium to finalise the future course of action in this regard.
Some of the proposals by the SATS to be debated include only one hour training for those above 12 years of age, (boys and girls), reducing the number of trainees, and more importantly - for the first one month focus only on physical conditioning to ensure that the athletes get into the right frame – mentally and physically.
Significantly, the Academies or Centres of Excellence run both by the State and the Central (SAI Centres) do not figure in the priority list even now for they are linked to education also.
However, Olympics probables like the shuttlers have been given special permission to start training from Aug. 7 itself. HCA secretary R. Vijayanand says that they are ready to start any activity once there is clarity on Standard Operating Procedure.
“If the govt. gives the nod, we have a plan of action and all the play facilities are ready for the players to avail them,” he said. For his part, Norman Isac, secretary of Telangana Basketball Association, says that while the GHMC has given permission for all sports complexes to be reopened from Monday, they are yet to get any clear signal from the SATS.
“Yes, once we get, we are going to start straight away but with less number of trainees and more sessions with no age bar. We are very clear about the SOP as even the FIBA has sent us a list of dos and don’ts,” says the FIBA official.
A. Narasimha Rao, founder-secretary of Anandnagar Welfare Association Sports Academy (Khairtabad), has a different perspective.
“From the feedback, it is clear that many parents are still apprehensive. However, since some table tennis players have approached us, we will take a call tomorrow. However, we have no such plans for carrom right now,” he concluded.