Mumbai: In a huge setback for Maharashtra’s ice hockey team that is in Leh, Ladakh, for the Khelo India Winter Games 2026, the Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to lift the stay on their selection.“This is happening because this is falling in what is famously called the ‘chalta hai attitude’…,” said Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Abhay Mantri, and rejected the interim application of Ice Hockey Association of Maharashtra (IHAM) to lift the Jan 17 stay granted on a petition by five players. The players complained that instead of holding selections at the ice hockey rink in a mall at Wakad, Pune, it was held at a skating facility in Nigdi on rough tiles.IHAM’s advocate Surel Shah said because the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs directed the selection to be carried out on a roller-skates floor, the short-listed 19 players were not tested on the ice rink. He informed that they were tested for their stamina and balance on inline roller-skates to be declared as selected, and to reach Leh on Jan 17 to practise on the rink before the tournament starts on Jan 21.The judges found it “quite unusual” that team selection was made “on a single day” on Jan 13 “by making candidates use inline roller-skates and resort to shadow practice without play on an ice rink and without using puck”. Addressing the state’s advocate, Justice Ghuge said, “You need to put your house in order. You stop all these practices. This is not proper training and coaching for a game. This is a completely different game.” Shah added, “Even abroad, six months they train on roller-skates and six months on ice.”The judges said, “In the case before us, neither was any practice match played, nor did any of the selected candidates even step on to the ice rink” at Pune. Perusing the rink’s video and photographs, they were of “prima facie view that at least 6-8 players could have easily played on the rink when a team comprises only 6 players”.Pleading urgency, Shah said, “Today a state will go unrepresented because the petitioners did not participate (in selection). Today the team is at the competition in Ladakh and they are not allowed to participate,” he said. Justice Ghuge retorted, “Instead of sending such a team, better not. If you are going to send a team which is not going to win even a single match because of such training… We don’t believe in 3 days or 4 days, a roller-skater can become an ice hockey player.”
