MARGAO
From Day 1, Competition Director of National Games beach soccer, Mulrajsinh Chudasama, has been insisting that on-field personnel associated with Sports For All use sand-leveling rakes and not use their feet to flatten the surface between breaks.
Of the six odd workers involved in the task of flattening the surface at the end of each of the two periods of the three halves football game, four of them were using the flattening tools while two were using their feet to level the surface.
“Yes, I have been telling Prathik, the stadium manager of Sports For All holding the charge of Colva Beach National Games venue, to buy the necessary equipment and use them and not use the feet instead,” Chudasama said.
Chudasama, in fact, made sure that the message was conveyed to Prathik in front of media personnel and directed him to supply the requisite material to the workers. But there was no change and the workers continued to use feet to level the surface during the final between Goa and Kerala.
“The match is shown live by Doordarshan and all the visuals are going all over the place; not a good thing for the hosts and the host state,” added Chudasama.
Few Goans, who have travelled all over the world for some mega events and have been part of the organisational setup of many countries, were unhappy at how Goa’s image will be projected on television throughout India.
“They (government) have spent crores of money on so much equipment. They can't buy a sand-levelling tool costing 200 to 300 rupees? This boils down to the workers on the ground and people who have been in charge of handling the affairs, like the event management companies. They want to save a few pennies, I believe,' said Edwin, who has worked in Oman as an English and physical education teacher for more than two decades and was an athlete during his school and college days.
“The visuals of workers levelling sand by their feet give a bad name to Goa and Goans,” he added.
