The Covid scare is low, exams are nearly over and students are once again ready to hit the outdoors. Several sports centres that had opened in recent months are reporting a hike in enrolment and some others are about to throw open their doors.
Student count is on a steady rise at the Bidhan Sishu Udyan Skating Academy in Ultadanga where Bengal’s longest track for skating has been built this winter. This is bound to be good news for the scores of children of the extended neighbourhood who practise early in the morning on New Town roads near the Owl crossing.
“We had 12-13 students when admission started in mid-January. Now we have close to 60. I did not expect students to start coming so quickly (after the third Covid wave). The sight of the new track has filled them with a lot of enthusiasm,” said coach Victor Balmiki, who runs the academy. Classes are now being held six days a week, with the senior skaters attending both the morning and the evening shift daily, while the beginners come in the afternoon. “In these two years, practice took a real hit. Even when we tried holding classes once or twice a week, just two to five children who were very keen would turn up. Even if some others were interested, they were not allowed to come by their families. They started coming in healthy numbers only after Puja in 2021 as the national meet was to be held in November. It is only from this January that we are getting all levels of students,” said Balmiki.
All the beginners are now looking forward to the first intra-academy skating competition on the new track on April 2 and 3 (More on the skating track on Page 3).
Even cricket and football are making a comeback, both for entertainment and for coaching.
“We began in December with 10 students; in January we were shut due to the third wave; in February we reopened with 20 kids and now we have more than 32,” says Jyoti
Kakarania of Turf Cricket Academy, atop AMP Vaisaakkhi mall. While the academy now
operates twice a week they are planning to run it more frequently to accommodate the increasing students.
Same with VS Sports Arena 2.0, that opened a turf near The Stadel in the stadium in September. “While response was initially positive, we had to endure a trough during the third wave. Now private groups and corporates are hiring our space and we expect to do even better once exams get over,” says co-founder and managing director, Shatadru Lawrence Dutt.
They are themselves planning to open academies there to teach
futsal (five-a-side football) and mixed martial arts. “While 11-a side football is more professional, futsal is the sport of choice for recreation now-a-days,” says the entrepreneur and trainer who runs more turfs around town including one at New Town’s Rosedale.
ouths in the middle of a football game at VS Sports Arena 2.0 near The Stadel
Fit to fat
Most children returning to sports can barely run two rounds of a field as warm up. “Even their cricket kits have to be carried in by their drivers and domestic helps,” says Jyoti, who has now made it a rule for students to carry their own kits.
Shatadru, too, says students have lost the stamina to last a 90-minute match. “Football can be taught. That’s what we are here for. But if one has been sedentary for two years, it is fitness that needs to be regained first,” he says, referring to students who used to be lean two years ago but who have bloated up now. “Even now, students are possibly active for the hours they attend the academy but go back to being couch potatoes the rest of the time.”
Turf Cricket Academy has even started giving diet tips to students.
Balmiki has faced similar problems. “The kids came back in January with chubby cheeks and protruding tummies. Along with a drop in their skating skill, there were issues with their stamina, fitness and breathing,” he recalled.
But now after resuming training they are in much better shape. “One girl lost seven-eight kilos. Another parent showed me a photo of his son taken in January. ‘Compare this to him now,’ he told me.”
A student at the Bidhan Sishu Udyan Skating Academy
So green and refreshing is the ambience in BSU premises that many of the parents have themselves started walking while the children train. “The air is so fresh and the space so vast that they can confidently take off their masks here,” Balmiki smiles.
Rosedale Garden has refurbished the tennis court inside the complex this January, timing the move with a period of a lull in the pandemic period. “It also helped that we finally had raised the requisite funds and could hold a physical general body meeting after getting a government clearance, where the decisions were taken.
The seven-year-old hard court that had suffered damages now has a bright blue Yonex PVC mat atop. “We had to scrape the surface to lay six layers for the mat to be properly installed,” said Anant Alok, secretary, Rosedale Garden Apartment Owners’ Association. The bill came to Rs 8 lakh.
“Every resident by default is a member but we have 80 to 100 players, including several elderly residents who play at leisure,” said association vice-president Manoj Sharma.
The association also runs a coaching class for youngsters, mostly in the eight to 15 years age group. “It used to draw 30-35 students. But the coaching was stopped through the pandemic period. We reopened for two months after last Puja but had to stop again for the third wave and work on the court. Now the number of students is rising and we are back to an attendance strength of about 20,” said coach Bapi Halder.
The figure, feels Alok, will rise further. “The annual exams in various schools are now on. By the end of this week, the exams will be over everywhere. More youngsters will join then,” he said.
Raj Kanojia, a Rosedale Garden resident, set to hit a ball alongside Jaideep Mukerjea on the new tennis court
Sagar Virdi, Kshitiz Agarwal and Ananya Sharma were among those to be back on court the day the new surface was inaugurated on January 27. Agarwal has been playing tennis for five years now and was among the six young players to have competed in tournaments at the Bengal Tennis Academy in Salt Lake. Sharma is among the very few girls getting coached. The Roger Federer fan used to play at BTA when her family stayed in Kankurgachhi. “I am playing tennis for about 12-13 years now. It is good for health as also fun,” she said.
Former Davis Cup captain and coach Jaidip Mukerjea was invited to do the inauguration. He also hit a few balls to check out the court and expressed satisfaction with its quality.
A football match in progress at VS Sports Arena 2.0
Art of losing
Playing and winning aside, parents are sending kids to academies to first learn how to lose. “A mother told us she didn’t want us to boost her son’s ego. Usse apni aukaat pata chale. Ghar mein toh sher hai,’” the lady had said about her son who has been throwing tantrums even if he loses in ludo and carrom to his grandparents at home,” Jyoti says.
Shalini Murarka is glad her son Pranay has joined the Turf Cricket Academy. “Before this, he was playing on the terrace and in the park but lacked structured cricket training. Plus he needed to mingle with children his age,” says the BE Block resident. “For two years, I had become his teacher but I wasn’t doing justice as he was the only student. He needed friends to learn teamwork, camaraderie and adjustment.”
What new sports facility do you want to see come up in the neighbourhood? Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abp.in
