Lovely Choubey in action during the Jharkhand State Lawn Bowling championship in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Jamshedpur, April 27: The popularity of lawn bowling in the state has increased by leaps and bounds. The large number of participants in the State Lawn Bowling Championship, in progress in the state capital at present, reinforced the game’s acceptance in Jharkhand.

The officials maintained that around 80 participants from different districts of the state wished to take part in the initial stage of the tourney, but the number had to be curtailed down to just 32. And believe it or not, 16 of them are women. Thus, there is equal representation of male and female bowlers in the championship — 16 each.

Madhukant Pathak, the secretary of the Jharkhand Lawn Bowling Association (JLBA), told The Telegraph: “We are pleased with the popularity of the game in the state. We had to bring down the number of participants and register only 32 as several bowlers had come in,” said Pathak.

The officials are going gaga over the large number of women bowlers taking part in the event.

“We had campaigned a lot and encouraged women to play the game and that has reaped results. Several women participants were denied permission to take part in championship and only the topmost were given entry,” an official said. The officials claimed this surge in the number of participants to be a very healthy sign, especially with the National Games scheduled to take place in the state this year.

For, many medals would be u for grabs in the event. Jharkhand bagged quite a few medals in the National Games in Guwahati.

Experts would closely watch the bowlers going through their paces in the ongoing championship, as the probables for the state team for the forthcoming National Games would be picked based on the performance of the bowlers in the ongoing event.

“Going by the performance of the players, we expect a good outcome in the National Games. With regular nurturing in the training camps, there is a definite chance of Jharkhand bowlers coming good in the mega event,” an officials said.