National indoor facilities are available in Ranchi, Jharkhand. But the Glasgow-bound lawn bowls team preferred to have a pre-event camp in London to avail of indoor facilities.

India’s six-member lawn bowls team is attending a pre-Glasgow Commonwealth Games camp at an indoor facility in London. But the team is without a national coach. India won a gold medal and a silver in the discipline at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Three members of the gold medal-winning women’s Fours team — Rupa Rani Tirkey, Pinki Singh and Nayanmoni Saikia — are part of the team training in London.

There is an indoor facility in Ranchi, Jharkhand, but the federation preferred to conduct a pre-event camp in London. The team includes three men and three women.

The national team left for London earlier this week for a short camp and had its first indoor session on Friday, said an official familiar with the development.

“The players are training on their own,” one of the officials with the team told Sportsbackstory.com over the phone from London. The Sports Ministry has sanctioned the national camp in London.

While the main competition in Glasgow will be held at the Scottish Event Campus (indoors), the national team had its first outdoor camp in Delhi.

The Bowling Federation of India, the national governing body that oversees the development of lawn bowls in the country, had planned to appoint a foreign coach to prepare the national team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. But the last-minute arrangement did not materialise.

The federation approached a lawn bowls expert from New Zealand for a short-term contract, but the coach turned out to be too expensive, said another official familiar with the development.

“We are just praying everything goes well and we can win medals,” the official added.

Lokinder Singh, secretary general of the Bowling Federation of India, said he was busy when contacted. He did not respond to text messages.

Indian team

Women: Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey.

Men: Dinesh Kumar, Navneet Singh and Putul Sonowal.

EOM