National varsity hockey turns violent, 3 players injured

Varanasi, Jan 12 (UNI) At least three players of the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith (MGKV) university were wounded when spectators raided the ground and attacked them during the All India Inter University Hockey tournament at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) here today.

BHU Sports Board general secretary Vidyasagar Singh said the incident took place after the Group B match between Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU-Amritsar) and last year runners up MGKV, Varanasi ended in a 1-1 draw.

Dejected with the result which meant their exit from the tourney, the MGKV players first indulged in a scuffle with the GNDU players and followed it up by getting physical with technical official Raghvendra Rai, Mr Singh added.

Seeing the situation worsen, angry spectators entered the playing turf and attacked the MGKV players resulting in severe wounds to three players Alok, Rajesh and Ashish.

BHU securitymen present at the ground, however, prevented the situation from getting worse.

Later, the MGKV team registered a case against four persons including Raghvendra Rai at the Lanka police station. During the recent East Zone University Hockey tourney TOO, there was an altercation between BHU and MGKV players.

''We are going to lodge an official protest with Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and demand that BHU be debarred from hosting any tournament in future,'' MGKV team manager Joginder Singh said.

Spectators had raided the ground yesterday also during the match between BHU and Bangalore University (BU) and even attacked the BU players.

Raghvendra Rai, the former BHU hockey team captain was incidentally one of two umpires officiating the match and involved in a tussle with the BHU players, following which the incident took place.

UNI