Hockey officials of Simdega are jubilant that all the six Jharkhand players selected for the national junior women’s training camp to be held later this month are from their district.

However, they are also keeping their fingers crossed for the safety of the players in the wake of a spike in Covid-19 cases in the state.

Hockey India executive director R.K. Srivastava, in a letter to Hockey Jharkhand general secretary Bijay Shankar Singh, said on Friday that six players from Jharkhand were selected for the national women’s junior camp to be held at the Centre of Excellence of Sports Authority of India in Bangalore during January 17-29.

Beauty Dungdung, the sixth player picked for the camp Manob Chowdhary

A selection trial will also be organised on the last day “to prune down the strength of the players and those who are not selected will be released from the camp”, Shrivastava said, adding the players would also have to submit negative reports of RT-PCR tests done before 48 hours of joining the camp.

“We are glad that all the six players — Pramodini Lakra, Rajni Kerketta, Mahima Tete, Deepika Soreng, Kajal Bara and Beauty Dungdung — are from our district and the last three are from the same village, Kargaguri,” said Hockey Simdega president Manoj Konbegi.

They all had earlier represented the state at either sub-junior or junior level and are expected to do well in the selection trial, he said, adding they were hopeful that some of them would make it to the national team.

“But, alarmed by the abnormal rise in Covid infections in the state, we are really worried and praying for the safety of the players,” he said, adding that the players are now staying in their respective villages.

Though less compared to many other districts of the state, Covid cases are on the rise in Simdega too.

Simdega didn’t have a single active Covid-19 patient on December 30 while the state had 1,371 on that day.

After about a week, on Thursday, the district had 262 active cases while the count in the state went up to 17,206.

“As hockey plays an important role in their lives, these camps matter a lot,” Konbegi said, adding many of the good hockey players bagged jobs for their skill in the game and saved their families from poverty.

Citing Pramodini’s case, Konbegi said the girl who passed school final examination and became ineligible for free food and accommodation is still staying at a hockey centre for training by paying Rs 1,400 per month. Her family, though not well off, is somehow managing the money, considering it an investment.

“Six more players from the state are also attending the women’s senior training camp at present and four of them are from Simdega,” he said.