Delhi: In a frenzy on Monday evening, the Sports Authority of India released pictures of Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium being clean and ready to host an ISL match on the coming Thursday.
The photos were a meek attempt to address the outrage in the aftermath of the recently concluded ‘Dil-Luminati’ tour of singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh in the stadium.
One of the few stadiums in the region with a proper synthetic tracks for the athletes, the JLN Stadium was left ravaged after the two days concert which saw more than 70,000 people turn up to witness the Indian artist.
Apart from mess that was created, the coaches and athletes were angry with the fact that equipment were mishandled and broken during the organization of the concert.
The equipment such as hurdles, shot put, discus, and javelin were seen in a heap with some of them broken.
“This is highly inappropriate on the organizers part as the equipments were broken and they were mishandled. How will athletes practice is such a thing happens,” one of the coaches told The Bridge on the condition of anonimity.
“The equipments belong to the athletes and they have worked hard to buy these equipments,” the coach added.
To put in context one training hurdle will come at an cost of INR 6,000 and there are 10 hurdles in both the 110m and 400m races. Most of the athletes have spent their own money to procure these equipments for their training purposes.
One of the athletes claimed that this is not the first time and such incidents have occurred during ISL games as well.
“During the ISL games of Punjab FC, there are times when our equipments are thrown in heap and we come next day to see it lying and sometimes in a bad situation,” the athlete told The Bridge.
The concert hampered practice of the athletes
In keeping with preparations for the concert, the athletes were barred from practicing on the main track of JLN Stadium from 23rd October.
Instead, they were asked to practice on the side track which is outside of the playing area.
The adjacent track in JLN is a smaller one and it is in a poor condition. Also, it is packed with football players.
“We were not allowed to practice since one week and with tournaments coming up for the junior level, it is getting tough for my junior athletes,” one of the regular coaches at the stadium said.
“The track is poor and we have to struggle while running on the track,” other athlete said.
Athletes like Beant Singh took social media to express their disappointment and post images and a video of the stadium’s track and field area which was littered with garbage, alcohol containers and damaged athletics equipment.
“This is where athletes train, but here people had alcohol, danced and partied. Because of these kind of things, the stadium will remain close for 10-10 days. The athletics equipment like the hurdles have been broken and thrown here and there,” he wrote on the Instagram.
Clean up act or more problems?
When The Bridge visited the stadium late on Monday evening, workers were busy removing the litter and cleaning up the track.
It is learnt that the organizers had rented the Stadium till 28th October (Monday) and were supposed to return the stadium in the same condition as it was handed by Sports Authority of India (SAI).
However, the process of cleaning the stadium might have caused further damage to the soft synthetic track as heavily loaded rickshaws could easily break the synthetic track resulting in cracks and strewn granules.
The track at JLN was re-laid in 2021 after the previous track was damaged due to negligence and poor maintenance.
One of the oldest stadiums in the country, the JLN Stadium was used during the 1982 Asian Games and 2010 Commonwealth Games for opening and closing ceremonies and athletics events.
When asked about the situation, one of the athletes said, “It is a helpless situation for us honestly. We want Olympic medals but then this is how the sports infrastructure in the country is treated.”
For a country that aspires to win Olympic medals and has been spending crores on creating world class sporting infrastructure, the presence of broken alcohol bottles, rotting bones and metallic structures on a synthetic track meant for athletes is an act of utter disregard towards the sporting fraternity.