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Association considering carrom tournament without spectators: Arun Kedar
According to Arun Kedar, treasurer, all India carrom federation and vice president of Maharashtra carrom association keeping social distancing in a sport like carrom is very hard.
PUNE The all India carrom federation and the Maharashtra carrom association have cancelled five tournaments in the last two months due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic and officials believe more will be postponed in 2020.
The organisers are now planning to hold tournaments without spectators, once the government allows sports activities across the country.
According to Arun Kedar, treasurer, all India carrom federation and vice president of Maharashtra carrom association keeping social distancing in a sport like carrom is very hard.
“In other sports, spectators at least keep some distance from players but in carrom, everyone surrounds the players. Only inches separate the referee, players and the spectators.”Kedar said.
The association believes it will be hard to conduct tournaments through the end of December due to the covid-19 threat.
“One more thing which will impact carrom in Maharashtra is red zone cities. All these regions host many tournaments but now when games will resume there is uncertainty,” added Kedar.
Carrom tournaments are generally played throughout the year, but during monsoon season many new players connect with the sport.
“In monsoon many people don’t get chance to play outdoor games and many of them are inclined towards carrom and we get many new players during monsoon,” Kedar said.
Players miss club practice
The basics of the game are learned by playing in a club, therefore a lot of players prefer it.
“In carrom, there are two types of players – seniors who like to practice on their own at home while others who go to club for daily practice. New players are usually found more in the second type and in this year we will be missing such players and the worrying part is if these new players don’t play carrom regularly they will lose interest in the sport,” added Kedar.
Digital learning for players
To keep players updated with carrom knowledge, the state association is sharing videos of classical matches and also sharing facts of the game among players and coaches.
“These matches teach many things to players and one can concentrate on how champions execute their game plan in the final matches. Every day we share couple of games and facts to improve the knowledge of the game among players,” he added.
In the coming days, the national association is planning to come out with informative videos.
“Instead of reading booklet of game laws or online documents, we are planning to make informative videos to give carrom lovers something different. The making of the video is currently under progress,” he said.
