KANPUR: Astroturf is a necessity for the hockey game. Keeping this point in view the Kanpur Municipal Corporation has planned to arrange Astroturf ground for hockey in the prominent Green Park stadium of the city.
What has drawn the attention of the hockey veterans towards this proposal is on its size. It is being told that the hockey’s artificial ground would be a little shorter in size than the standard dimension.
According to the standard norm, the Astroturf hockey field should be 91.4 metres in length and 55.0 metres in width for all the age group players. The news reports inform that the proposed artificial ground in the Green Park stadium would be much short before the set standard. It is only 60 x 40 meters in size. They hastily assume that there is no sense in arranging small size ground and they have considered it as a sheer wastage of money. They also argued when there is no dearth of space in the sprawling stadium why is small hockey ground?
Nagar Nigam in its resolution has clearly indicated that more than 150-player turn up for practice at the stadium whose requirement would be fulfilled by the Astroturf. A sum of Rs 197.28 lakh has been given for the ground.
It is apt to mention here that ever since the field hockey was played on Astroturf in the 1976 Montreal Olympics it has become a gold ground for the game.
