IMAGE: Athlete Beant Singh expressed his disappointment on social media, sharing images and a video of the stadium’s track and field area littered with garbage. Photograph and video: beant.bhinder_800m/Instagram
Widespread littering at the end of popular singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh’s two-day concert at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here drew sharp criticism from athletes who train regularly at the iconic venue even as its owner, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), promised a clean-up in the next 24 hours.
The stadium hosted the ‘Dil-Luminati’ concert on Saturday and Sunday and drew nearly 40,000 fans each night.
It wasn’t the first time that such an event was held at the venue, which has hosted concerts by top international stars such as Bryan Adams (2004) and Ricky Martin (1998) in the past. But the after-effects of Dosanjh’s gig were heavily criticised by the athletes.
Delhi’s middle distance runner Beant Singh posted images and a video of the stadium’s track and field area which was littered with garbage, alcohol containers and damaged athletics equipment.
“This is where athletes train, but here people had alcohol, danced and partied. Because of these kind of things, the stadium will remain close for 10-10 days. The athletics equipment like the hurdles have been broken and thrown here and there,” he wrote on the Instagram.
“This is the situation of sport, sportspersons and stadium in India. …. medals do not come in the Olympics because there is no respect and support for sportspersons in this country.”
The 25-year-old Singh had won a silver and a bronze in the 2014 and 2018 National Open Championships respectively.
The SAI, on its part, said that its contract with the concert organisers was very clear — the stadium would be returned to the body in the “same condition that it was handed over to them.”
“More than 70,000 people attended the concert over two days and the cleaning will take 24 hours. The stadium is expected to be cleaned up by the 29th,” a top SAI source said when reached for a comment.
But for athletes like Singh, it was heartbreaking to watch the place that is their training base in the condition it was in Monday.
In the caption of the video, he wrote: “Jo nuksan hua hai bacho ka vo to do bache khud paise ikatthe krke samaan leke aate hain prctc k liye ….” (At least pay for the loss incurred by these children, who collected money themselves and brought equipment for practice).
The stadium is also hosting Indian Super League football matches as Punjab FC uses it as its home venue. They have a match against Chennaiyin FC on Thursday.
This is not the first time that the JLN Stadium has been left in such a messy condition after public functions attended by large crowds.
“Athletes who train here have voiced their disappointment in the past also but nothing has changed,” said a track and field athlete from Delhi on conditions of anonymity.
Currently, the stadium is not hosting any national camp. It is, however, part of the ‘Come and Play’ scheme of SAI, which allows children and beginners to use the stadium’s facilities free of cost for training purposes.
The venue was constructed to hold the athletics competitions of the 1982 Asian Games. It was renovated for the 2010 Commonwealth Games and both the opening and closing ceremonies of that showpiece were held.
