Ranchi, Jan. 10: It has only been 25 days since floorball made an entry into the sports world of the state and it has already made an impact.

An indoor sport played with carbon sticks with a plastic vented blade, it’s quite similar to ice hockey. Opponent teams play to score the maximum goals to win the match. The craze for the game began when some fans decided to build a team in the sport.

Twenty-five players — 17 boys and eight girls — were trained in floorball at a five-day camp that was held from December 15 to 20. Amrendra Dutt Dwivedi, the coach of the camp, feels the sport has a lot of scope in Jharkhand. “There are many talented hockey players in the state and thus, I feel, the sport is bound to grow,” he said.

Dwivedi himself was trained in floorball by the Floorball Federation of India, which has its headquarters in Lucknow. “The game was introduced in India only four years ago. We formed the Jharkhand Floorball Association (JFA) with an intention to popularise the game,” he said.

JFA was constituted in December last year. After providing training, the boys’ and the girls’ team were taken to Pune to participate in the 4th National Floorball Championship-2007, which took place last year. “We won against Andhra Pradesh (6-0) in the boys’ category but lost to Punjab and Madhya Pradesh,” said Uday Sahu, the president of JFA.

The players were trained on the Morabadi grounds, as it has a spot “suitable” to play the game. But as of now no official ground or stadium has been earmarked for the sport.