Hockey players start ‘socially-distanced’ training after two-month pause

The national team players were supposed to restart training in mid-May, but their wait got prolonged after a SAI staffer passed away and tested positive for the coronavirus.

By Mihir Vasavda


Graham Reid, the head coach, with the men’s hockey team in training. (Source: File Photo)

After nearly 70 days, Indian hockey teams returned to the turf on Monday morning; the first team sport to resume activities since the lockdown was imposed on March 25. It was training like never before, vastly different from what they are used to. But as a player put it, ‘at least we could feel the ball hitting the stick again.’ It was largely just about that.