Parents disrupt match after school's ouster from final

Here's some ninja parenting that will make the aggression of soccer moms seem mild. On Monday, the basketball court at Father Agnel School in Vashi turned into a fighting arena, when parents of Goregaon's Vibgyor High students hunkered down mid-court to disrupt a final between Mahim's Bombay Scottish and Thane's Hiranandani Foundation School.

Battleground: Fr Agnel School in Vashi, where the match was held. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi

They were peeved because their kids' school had been ousted from the District Sports Office (DSO) Under-14 girls' basketball tournament. The Vibgyor team had been disqualified from the final against Hiranandani earlier the same day, and the moms and dads believed the decision by the Raigad DSO authorities was grossly unjust.

Things got so unsportsmanlike that police had to be called in to intervene and calm things down, with the parents marching down to the Vashi police station, demanding that a complaint be filed against DSO officials.

"The parents wanted to file a complaint. But we could not take the case further, since the DSO had already given a proper notice stating the reason for disqualification to the school authorities concerned," said Senior Inspector Laxman Kale of Vashi police station.

"We have not registered any case and have appealed to the parents to either appeal to the higher authorities, or take the legalroute if they still want to take this further," said Kale.

DSO says
"The Vibgyor team had fielded players from both the ICSE and IB boards, which is a clear violation, as the School Game Federation of India (SGFI) rules state that every school board should have its own separate team," said DSO chief sports officer, Sunita Rikame.

"Both Hiranandani and Father Agnel teams had appealed on October 10 against Vibgyor's fielding a mixed team, and we were simply acting on that complaint," added Rikame.

"The DSO had no problem with the school playing with a mixed team during the initial stages of the tournament. They sent us a mail announcing the disqualification only during the final," said Gauri Sudh, a parent.

"If the DSO officials were so concerned about a team playing with players from two different boards, why didn't they inform us at the start of the tournament, instead of disqualifying the team10 days later, after we had fairly contested and reached the final? This is not fair to the kids, who have missed their exams and have practiced day in and out for this tournament," she added.u00a0