PG sports – Past, Present and Future
In order to augment the recent efforts of the sports council to improve UG-PG interaction in IITB, Vinay brings you an article on PG sports
The genesis
‘PG sports’ was first conceptualized and organized in the year 2004 by the then PG nom, Prashant Kodigire, in an effort not only to bring the PGs closer to the Gymkhana but also to spot hidden talent amongst the PGs for the inter IITs. It started off with a budget of Rs. 8000 and a few major sports like football and cricket. “There has been no looking back since”, says the PG sports nominee, Rahul Bhat. The budget allocated has been growing since then and he hopes for an increased budget this time as well.
Why PG sports?Udaya Kumar, ex-PG gymkhana nominee says he has been asked this question countless times. He points out: “The Last edition saw about 180 medals and almost four hundred participants. Is there any other event in the institute where four hundred PGs take part?”. Ashok Kumar, ex-PG sports nominee, says, “It takes an extra effort for the PGs to get into the hostel GC events as the hostel teams prefer known old players to unknown new ones unless someone is exceptional”. The present DoSA himself has gone on record to say that the Gymkhana now seems full because PGs are coming into it. PG sports acts as an excuse for them to take permission from the department to come and play sports. Moreover PG timings do not usually match the UG dominated GC timings.
Enthu juntaPG sports has become a part and parcel of PG life in IITB. The department sports nominee elections are seriously and closely fought. The departments also conduct intras to make sure that the best players end up playing. Teams also design their own jerseys and get them printed at their own expense. Though a major chunk of participants are MTechs, there has been a notable increase in the number of PhDs.
Organizing woesRahul says, “The budget allocated for PG sports is less than that allocated to any single sport at IITB. In spite of this we have been giving away medals to the top three players in each sport. We have also been organizing Opening and Closing ceremonies which are presided over by stalwarts of the sporting world like Godfrey Pereira and Kamlesh Mehta”.Ashok says, “Scheduling this sucks the blood out of us!!” High numbers of teams, ground availability, and schedule compatibility between teams are the major issues.
The patternPG sports is held in two phases in the odd and even semesters. The first phase includes mainly individual events as the odd semester is hectic for the PGs. The 21 departments are divided into three groups of seven each. Points are awarded depending upon the position of the department in the group for a given sport. The overall tally is taken to award womens’ and mens’ championships and a PG sports championship is awarded based on the aggregate points. When any department falls short of people, two departments are clubbed and points distributed proportional to the composition.
While Carrom, Chess, cycling, Baddy, Athletics and TT are common for men and women, Football, Volleyball, Cricket and Basketball are exclusive for men and throw ball for women. Last year’s overall champions were the Mechanical Department followed by Energy Sciences. SOM is on top this year closely followed by CSE, although there is a lot of action left.
FinallyRahul says, “There are a lot more potential players, but they are not able to make it to the elims due to academic commitments”. Rahul thanks all the institute sports secretaries and the GS Sports Rohit Drolia for their continuous support and enthusiasm, without which PG sports would not have seen this level of success.
Vinay Kumar is a second year PG student of the Industrial Engineering Department. He can be contacted at vinaykumark@iitb.ac.in.