The winter months have brought along with it the dreaded ‘Smog-Week’ leading to the postponement of the 8th edition of the Ashoka Basketball Association (ABA), originally scheduled to take place from 22nd to 24th November, as the final event of the Monsoon semester. What was a much-awaited weekend now stands delayed, owing to the blanket of smoke that has engulfed the campus and the concern surrounding its effects on student health. The air quality on campus has been described as poor over the last week with the air quality index (AQI) levels as high as 600 last weekend - nighttime peaks of 800 or higher have also been observed on occasion. A few days on from a much-hyped and active auction, questions regarding the ABA’s organisation were up in the air.
Thoughts that were being muttered with heavy puffs came to the forefront on Monday (18th November 2024) afternoon, when an official email from the ABA Organising Committee (OC) stated that they had taken the difficult decision to postpone the tournament in light of severe pollution. The OC also ruled out any possibility of there being an indoor tournament. Although a delay to the last weekend of November was on the cards, increasing levels of pollution and deteriorating air quality forced the OC to postpone the event, with the likeliest next opportunity for its occurrence lying in the Spring 2025 semester.
Opinions about the tournament’s original dates were already floating around campus, with some claiming that the event was too close to exam week. There seemed to be several delays pertaining to the ABA, especially surrounding the auction. Logistical issues and bureaucracy seemed to be a problem - with auction tables for team owners not being set up with T-2 hours to the gavel being struck for the first time. Problems regarding the venue for the auction were also persistent owing to miscommunication with the administration and the sports department about the booking of the Sports MPH as the venue for the auction. Prabhveer Singh Bedi, head of the Organising Committee and captain of the Ashoka Men’s Basketball Team said “The placement cycles for this year ended later than usual”, forcing the OC to push the event to the last week of November. It was the case that last year, placement interviews were done by September, allowing the previous OC to organise ABA at the end of October, when playing conditions were much better.
The ABA is the Monsoon semester’s main attraction and arguably the main attraction of the entire Ashokan calendar. Now that its postponement to the Spring’25 semester is almost inevitable, the Ashokan sporting calendar looks jampacked. The Ashokan Premier League (APL), the Racquet Sports League (RSL), the Ashoka Cricket Super Sixes (ACSS) and Ashoka’s inter-collegiate sports fest ‘Agneepath’ are already scheduled for the Spring semester. On top of it, Ashoka’s cultural festival - Banjaara and other societal fests are also set to take place in Spring. With everything being packed like a tin can of sardines, the crowded schedule means that avoiding a clash of tournaments or events is impossible, leading to students having to choose among leagues (in terms of both taking part and being an audience). While the bigger events such as the ABA and APL are not likely to be affected by this, smaller leagues such as the RSL could take a hit, owing to a low student turnout. Tournaments might also be forced to sacrifice their structure and format to ensure that there is enough time for other events and tournaments while accounting for the ever-present pressure of students’ academic schedules.
Moreover, the crammed schedule opens athletes to injuries and burnouts, especially those who will appear across leagues and represent Ashoka at Agneepath and other inter-college tournaments that could take place. Injuries could also present a challenge to owners, who would have to find replacements for their players, which could be a problem especially since the recently concluded ABA auction exposed the dearth of basketball players at Ashoka. The OC could also face problems if teams lose out on their key players as a result of injuries.
What could then be done to avoid such an occurrence again? For one, the tournament could be planned much more in advance and more efficiently by both the OC and the sports department to make sure that delays that could be avoided do not repeat themselves. The timing and duration of the placement cycles are unavoidable and there is little that can be done about that. However, seeing that the air quality had deteriorated by such a massive extent and may continue to do so in the coming weeks, the OC ultimately made the right call in postponing ABA especially since the tournament was to be played at the dhaba court where both players and spectators would be exposed to the pollution and low visibility.
Considering next semester, it is imperative that the OCs of the various tournaments and events deliberate amongst themselves to make sure that the clashing of events is kept to a minimum. OCs may even look at the possibility of having two tournaments around the same venue (frisbee field and dhaba court) to ensure that people turn up to watch. This may mean that certain players might have to sacrifice playing one sport to play another, or multiple scheduling headaches for the OCs themselves (those that survived the APL 7.0 and ACSS conflict in Spring ‘24 remember). What is for sure is that without proper and precise planning, there is no guarantee that all the tournaments scheduled at Ashoka are going to take place smoothly, or at all.
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