Parents, officials pay from own pocket to send sub-jr team for Nationals

The smiling faces in this adjoining picture were far from happy around 24 hours before they posed together at the Chhatrapati Shivaji airport in the wee hours of WednesdayThe Mumbai team pose for a picture at the cityrsquos domestic airport in the wee hours of Wednesday before leaving to participate in the Hockey India SubJunior National Championships May 516 in ManipurThe Mumbai subjunior boys hockey team that left for Imphal Manipur to participate in the sixth Hockey India SubJunior National Championships from May 5 to 16 almost missed the bus In this case the train But thanks to their parents and some cooperative Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd MHAL officials the lads eventually managed to travel for the tournament via airMHAL Hon Secretary Ram Singh RathoreMHAL Hon Secretary Ram Singh Rathore explained what transpired at their Churchgate office in the last 10 days ldquoWe received intimation from Hockey India that the tournament dates were going to change so we had to delay the teamrsquos rail ticket bookings We finally booked the tickets at a discount as the tournament was being conducted by a national sports federation Hockey IndiaPeak season problemldquoHowever since itrsquos peak travel season time our waitlisted tickets did not get confirmed Worse still we lost all the money spent here around Rs 25000 as there is no refund provision on discounted tickets We then booked the boys via Tatkal and called all players to the platform to board the train But in the final seating list we had just three confirmations so we couldnrsquot board the train I then wrote to Hockey India to help us send the team to Imphal but they replied in the negative We were disappointed and contemplated not sending the team for the tournamentrdquoThe disappointment was more among the players for whom sporting the Mumbai jersey is the culmination of years of toil across the cityrsquos dwindling hockey grounds Thatrsquos when one of the playersrsquo parents suggested the aerial route However the expense was almost 10 times the train fare given the tournamentrsquos remote locationldquoWe could afford to send this team by air but we send six teams for national tournaments annually mdash subjunior boys amp girls junior boys amp girls senior boys amp girls Obviously we canrsquot afford airfare for all of them so fearing this could set a precedent I had to turn down parentsrsquo suggestion of us bearing the air expenditurerdquo said Rathore who then suggested Plan lsquoBrsquoThe final meetingldquoWe called for a meeting of the parents and checked who all could afford the airfare Of the 18 players the parents of 14 players agreed I then discussed the issue with our committee members and some of us chipped in from our own pockets to pay for the remaining four players and managerrdquo added Rathore The parents who were initially upset with MHAL are now happy to see their boys finally don Mumbai coloursldquoWe were very angry when we learnt that MHA was not forthcoming with the airfare But then they explained their situation to us and we understood It was nice of the officebearers to pay from their own pocketsrdquo said one of the playerrsquos parentsIt is learnt that the MHA officials paid around Rs 70000 for the five tickets and the overall air expenditure was overRs 2 lakh The smiles on the playersrsquo faces in this picture though is priceless