Jarkhar first village of India to have blue AstroTurf

Our Sports Reporter

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Ludhiana, May 18

The Mata Sahib Kaur Hockey Stadium at Jarkhar near here will be the first village in the country to have a blue AstroTurf.

The Jarkhar Hockey Academy which has produced a number of players, who represented the state in different hockey tournaments in the past seven or eight years, hogged limelight in 2009 when an AstroTurf (seven-a-side) was laid at Jarkhar village, about 15 km from here, on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla road.

The AstroTurf was re-laid in 2011 as the organisers brought the synthetic strip from Namdhari Academy, Bhaini Sahib. Now, an agreement has been signed with a Delhi-based company, Divya Enterprises, for laying down the blue AstroTurf on international standard.

Jagroop Singh Jarkhar and advocate Harkanwal Singh, director and president, respectively of Jarkhar Academy said the new AstroTurf would be bought from China at a cost of Rs 40 lakh for which an amount of Rs 11 lakh had been paid as advance.

“The blue AstroTurf with green boundaries will be laid by the second week of June. Besides, the base had been prepared at the adjoining ground of the main stadium where another surface will be erected for the use of talented trainees of the academy,” said Joginder Singh, president of the academy.

Meanwhile, Singh had urged upon the sports promoters and corporate establishments for financial assistance so that facilities could be provided to trainees and benefited to polish their game and bring fame to their state in the future hockey competitions.

After the meeting of the academy, the president said the annual general body meeting of the academy would be held next week during which the office-bearers of the body would be elected. A two-minute silence was also observed to pay homage to Jagjit Singh Sandhu, vice-president of the academy who expired recently.