Jalandhar/Chandigarh, March 6
Curtains came down on Sunday evening on the country’s ‘first’ state games carrying cash prizes and dedicated to the memory of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh at the Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar. But the packed stadium sent tongues wagging at the overdose of Bollywood both during the opening and closing ceremonies.

Exclusion of several popular sports from the inaugural edition of the Punjab State Games has also come in for muted criticism besides the timing. Both parents and students felt it was a distraction before the final Board and University examinations.

The six-day sporting extravaganza, days after the conclusion of the National Games in Jharkhand, saw competitions in athletics, boxing, basketball, football, hockey, shooting, volleyball, wrestling, weightlifting, kabaddi and tug of war. Winners in each of these 11 disciplines got a cash prize of Rs 9 lakh while teams placed at number two and number three got Rs 7 lakh and Rs 5 lakh each. The prize money was equally divided among winners in both men’s and women’s sections, respectively. Jalandhar ended the richest, followed by Patiala and Ludhiana.

Hype created by the first ‘World Cup’ Kabaddi Tournament with a cash prize of Rs one crore to the winning team has now progressed to state sports festival. Normally, it is the prerogative of the Punjab Olympic Association (POA) to hold such events. But this time POA and its affiliate sports associations played the supporting role and left the organisation to the state government’s Sports Department.

Several SSAs, including fencing, handball, badminton, table tennis, swimming, judo, cycling etc however felt left out from the games.

“What was the point of including Kabaddi,” complained bitterly the secretary of one of the associations left out in the cold by Punjab Games. “In the National Games, Punjab’s men’s team did not even clear the preliminary round and the only consolation was a bronze medal for the women’s team,” he said.