Carrom tournament to become first sporting event post lockdown
The Carrom Association of Telangana is keen to host a tournament in the first week of June and will not allow any spectators.
Published : May 24, 2020 18:45 IST
Hyderabad is the hometown of two World Cup carrom champions – K. Srinivas (men) and S. Appoorwa (women). And not surprisingly, it can be the first city in Telangana which will see a sports body – the Carrom Association of Telangana – host a tournament at Fateh Maidan Indoor Stadium here in the first week of June post the lockdown without any spectators.
“It is pretty simple. The size of the carrom board is 36 inches (3 feet), players don’t come into physical contact with each other and they will not touch the board. A player sits at least one foot away from the board with enough space for his elbow to play the strokes,” B.K. Haranath, founder-president of the CAT, which was originally Hyderabad Carrom Association since 1972, told Sportstar on Sunday.
"Even otherwise, the prescribed definition of the competition boards is such there should be a distance of 10 feet from one light point to the other on the boards, which means the players on the adjacent boards either on the left or right will be at least five feet away from each other,” he continued.
Haranath stressed that competitions will not need individual umpires for each board. “Nearly 16 to 20 boards can be arranged for a tournament with no individual umpires for each board. This way, in a ranking tournament we can host 80 matches in a day spanning nine hours.
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"And, there will be a technical director, chief referee and the assistant chief referees positioned 15-feet away from the first row of boards to monitor the matches,” he said.
The senior official also added that spectators will not be an issue. “Well, audience has never been an issue for except the carrom family there will not be many spectators, so they can be easily controlled,” he said.
In fact, the CAT is also planning an innovative online carrom tournament given the its surge in popularity during the lockdown.