Despite an growing variety of gamers getting contaminated and the near-certain postponement of their solely scheduled worldwide match this yr, the coaching camp of the lads’s hockey crew is on observe on the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
On Monday, SAI stated that ahead Mandeep Singh turned the sixth India participant to check constructive for Covid-19 upon reaching the Bengaluru campus to report for the nationwide camp. On Friday, 5 different gamers – captain Manpreet Singh, goalkeeper Krishan Pathak, defenders Varun Kumar, and Surender Kumar, and midfielder Jaskaran Singh too had contracted the virus.
Mandeep, in accordance with SAI, was asymptomatic. “He is being administered treatment by doctors along with five players who have tested positive,” SAI stated in an announcement, including that the 25-year-old was among the many 20 gamers who had undergone a RT-PCR check whereas getting into the ability final week.
Mandeep was shifted to SS Sparsh multispeciality hospital final evening after it was discovered that his blood oxygen stage was dropping beneath regular. As per newest experiences, his situation is at present steady.
The nationwide crew gamers got a month-long break from coaching, which is scheduled to renew later this month after the 14-day quarantine interval is over. It is learnt that each one the gamers and training employees, who’ve returned to the centre final week after spending the month at their respective houses, should take one other Covid-19 check after their quarantine is over.
Apart from males’s crew chief coach Graham Reid, all different gamers and coaches of the women and men’s crew had gone dwelling in the course of the break. Once the gamers who returned and coaches check adverse, they are going to be allowed to renew camp as per the Standard Operating Procedure laid down by SAI and Hockey India. The coaching is more likely to be held whereas sustaining social distancing, to start out with. Gradual relaxations will probably be allowed at a later stage.
Asian CT set to be postponed
The subsequent scheduled worldwide competitors for the lads’s hockey crew is in April 2021.
But though they are going to spend the subsequent few months on the campus coaching, it’s seemingly there will probably be no worldwide project for each groups. The males’s Asian Champions Trophy, which is to be held from November 17 to 27 in Dhaka, is ready to get postponed, in accordance with Asian Hockey Federation chief government Tayyab Ikram.
Ikram stated the rising variety of instances within the subcontinent and the journey restrictions have made it ‘very difficult’ for them to carry the match as scheduled. The girls’s Asian Champions Trophy, which was to be held within the South Korean metropolis of Donghae from June 14 to 21, has already been pushed ahead indefinitely.
“We are in touch with all participating teams and monitoring the situation very closely. The government rules and regulations are making it very difficult to go for a certain date. There is a big chance we have to postpone a little bit,” Ikram advised The Indian Express from Lahore. He added that the postponed match will probably be held in Dhaka.
The destiny of the Junior Asia Cup, a qualifying occasion for subsequent yr’s Junior World Cup, can also be undecided. The males’s occasion was to be held in Dhaka in June, whereas the ladies’s match was scheduled for April in Kakamigahara, Japan.
With the postponement of the Asian Champions Trophy now imminent, the subsequent scheduled worldwide competitors for the lads’s crew is in April 2021 once they resume their FIH Pro League commitments. The match was suspended mid-way this yr as a result of pandemic however is ready to renew in Europe subsequent month. India will rejoin the nine-team competitors solely in April.
The girls’s crew, which isn’t part of the Pro League, doesn’t have a hard and fast schedule. Although it’s learnt that each groups will probably be enjoying in invitational tournaments and check matches early subsequent yr.
