Meerut : In a major boost to the sports infrastructure of the city, Meerut gets its first Astro turf hockey field that’ll provide international level of infrastructure for players. On the occasion, Rajendra Agarwal , MP Meerut said, “We have ensured world-class facilities to the players from a young age. It is now the responsibility of the coaches and players to make the country proud by bringing in medals and showcasing their talent at international events.”
The project cost Rs 5.5 crore to build this world-class hockey Astro Turf under Khelo India Programme. This is the second one in west UP after Rampur.
A three-day North Zone CBSE tournament has begun here starting Saturday comprising U-19 players from UP, Uttarakhand and Delhi NCR regions. “Today, we got rid of the 70-year-old drought. From now onwards Meerut can hold international tournaments also. This is a dream come true as players will get state-of-the-art infrastructure of global standards, thus giving them a sense of competitiveness in the global arena,” said Vineet Tyagi, organising secretary of the tournament. At present 360 players of 22 teams from west UP, Delhi and Uttarakhand are participating in the tournament.
Tyagi said that the world famous field hockey players like Dhyan Chand and Dhanraj Pillai have also come up from similar grounds. “Now we hope to see more sports talent come out of these grounds, and make our dreams come true,” he added.
