Hockey match in Delhi after 12 years.

Vijay Kumar's report from the stadium.

No cards for media, no place for those who want to reach.

In the name of media, cards were made for their favourites, in the name of facilities, only formality.

            New Delhi, 24 October. After almost 12 years, a hockey competition was organized in the capital Delhi. In which two test matches were decided to be played between the teams of India and Germany. But the people and media of Delhi would have never thought that they will have to go through a very bad phase to watch the match.

No water in the toilets, where to go -

               These matches were played on 23 and 24 at the Dhyanchand Hockey Stadium located in the middle of Delhi. Entry was kept free to watch the matches. But there was no drinking water inside the stadium for the public, water in the toilets and other facilities, while a good number of people watching this match were women and children. Not only this, the spectators themselves cleaned the seats in the stadium. Yes, it was definitely true that the food and drink arrangements for the VIPs were dazzling. Because the common hockey lover has no status.

New excuses for not making cards for the media

             As far as the media is concerned, the behaviour of the media agency looking after it was worse than second class. Cards of many media persons were not made at all. While the people of the agency looking after the media kept giving wrong information to the media persons. When the media persons asked the media agency, one said first come first serve, while the other said that there are limited seats. When we talked to the third one, he was told to show his paper cuttings, whether he had covered hockey or not. When we talked to the fourth one, he said that we got less cards from Hockey India. Despite all these excuses, in the name of media facilities, only 20 to 30 people were allowed to sit on the table. Most of which were occupied by photographers. In such a situation, the reporters who came to cover the match were seen sitting on their seats with their laptops, there was no electricity to run the laptops. The media agency had seated its own people and others on the media seats. There was no one to see this. The media agency also said that a reporter's card has been made from each institution, while some institutions have made cards for two to four people. If this is investigated, the truth will be revealed. 100 cards were distributed in the name of media.

The passes of the VIP gallery were also distributed more than the seats, most of them watched the match standing.

             Similarly passes were distributed in large numbers in the VIP gallery as well. Due to which the number of people sitting and standing in the gallery was the same. Here in this gallery, food and drink arrangements were made for the former hockey legends. But due to the arrival of common people, the entire arrangement collapsed and the legend players just kept staring. There was definitely a separate arrangement for the VIP people. Not only this, the spectators watching the match of their country Germany also looked quite upset.

            However one good side was that Hockey India's secretary Bhola Nath was definitely trying to manage the arrangements by running around, but his own colleagues were seen enjoying their own food and drinks instead of looking after the arrangements. It is better that no such event is organised in the capital, at least we don't get to see such days in front of the guests coming from abroad.