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Haryana’s teen basketball players’ death shocks, sends ripples across sports players
The death of 16-year-old basketball player Hardik Rathi, after a pole fell on him during practice, has sparked concerns over infrastructural safety at courts.
The news of 16-year-old national-level basketball player Hardik Rathi’s death during routine practise at a court in Haryana’s Lakhan Majra has left many shaken. The visuals from the CCTV footage showing the basketball pole falling on the young athlete, crushing him under its weight, is so chilling that it has ignited concerns about the state of sports infrastructure available in Haryana, which is known as the breeding ground of medal-winning sportspersons.
While Hardik is seen practicing alone in the video, he sprints from the three-point line and jumps up to touch the basket. But, as soon as he grabs the rim, in a split second the pole uproots and crashes while pinning him underneath its weight.
This, however, isn’t the only incident. Recently, in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh district, a 15-year-old basketball player, Aman, died due to a similar accident as the basketball pole fell on him during practice causing him internal injuries.
“To see such young lives gone this way breaks my heart,” says Narender Kumar Grewal, a former member of Indian National Basketball Team, adding, “I have played on basketball courts in Haryana all my life, and to see this lapse in infrastructure should force us all to think where we are lacking... We have top quality manufacturers in India and at the national level usually we use equipment from those, but sometimes at the local courts we tend to compromise due to financial limitations… The ring is the most important and should be the best quality so we need to make sure that we are not installing low quality rings, poles and other equipment.”
Karnal-born Ajmer Singh, former Olympian and Arjuna Awardee, feels such tragic loss has also exposed another gap: maintenance. “The newer basketball courts in the country are being built to top-notch quality but this incident has forced us to talk about a more important issue, which is how are we maintaining the older courts. Incidents like these happen due to lack of maintenance. Maybe the nuts in the pole were loose or the rust caused it to break down. So regular checks and maintenance is absolutely important.”
The impact of these incidents is also being felt among college students such as those in Delhi University who hail from Haryana. One such student, Ritika, who is pursuing BSc in Physical Education at DU’s School of Open Learning, shares how being a budding player makes her feel stressful about seeing such incidents. “This could have been us... After the incident, me and my teammates felt we don’t want to go to practice. Not all players can afford to train at the top facilities, but we don’t want to feel unsafe when practising at our local courts! It’s important for the authorities to look into this at the earliest lest India will lose more future medallists.”
