A handball tournament is organised in Jamshedpur. (below) S.M. Bali

Jamshedpur, Jan. 2: The Handball Federation of India has come out strongly and proposed the construction of an indoor handball stadium in Jamshedpur.

Despite repeated pleas from the state handball association, the construction of the stadium here has been relegated to the backburner. Instead, the stadium is now being built at Hotwar, the site of the mega sports complex.

But the real picture unfolded during the recent visit of federation secretary-general S.M. Bali to Jamshedpur. To his surprise, he found that the state government and the Jharkhand Olympic Association intend to conduct the National Games events in an indoor stadium meant for gymnastics. Taking strong exception to the fact, Bali said the indoor handball stadium should come up in Jamshedpur only.

The federation and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) have also come out with a scheme to popularise the game at the grassroots level, churn talents and offer budding players a chance to play at the national level.

Under the scheme, the IOA had earlier incorporated five disciplines — kabaddi, kho kho, men’s and women’s hockey and volleyball. Recently, handball and basketball were also added to it. The games would now be started from the panchayat level where inter-panchayat tournaments would be organised. The top teams in that level would qualify for the block, district, state, zonal and finally to the national level.

Bali said: “We insisted on adding handball under the scheme as it would help churn players from the grassroots level. We are formulating the logistics regarding the scheme and the letters to initiate the process would be sent to all federation-affiliated state units.”

According to officials, though the rule of the game would remain the same as changing it would not help the association get players at the grassroots level know about the game, the number of players — depending on availability — could be adjusted, officials said. “At panchayat level, one might not find adequate amount of players to form a full team. In that case, three-a-side teams,” a federation official said.

About the stadium, he said: “I took up the matter of construction of the stadium in Jamshedpur during the annual general body meeting of IOA in Ranchi. The officials concerned assured me that it would be constructed in the steel city. Now it was again shifted to Ranchi.”

“We will strongly recommend to the National Games organising committee of constructing the stadium here,” added Bali.