MUMBAI, Jan. 20 -- Can a national-level ice hockey team be picked from players skating on roller blades instead of ice skates? The Bombay High Court is weighing in, staying the selection of the ice hockey team representing Maharashtra at the Khelo India Winter Games 2026, on these very grounds. Making scathing remarks against the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Maharashtra, the court on Saturday put on hold the selection of a 19-member squad chosen for the games, organised by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and scheduled to begin in Ladakh on Tuesday. The bench said "the most shocking factor" was that the state's sports commissioner, Shital Teli Ugale, had ignored a request of the ad-hoc committee of the Ice Hockey Association of Maharashtra to hold the tryouts at the state's only ice hockey facility, at the Phoenix Millenium Mall in Pune. Instead, the trials were conducted at a skating facility in Nigdi, in Pune, on a rough surface that required the players to use roller skates. The division bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Abhay Mantri was also surprised that only one of the 19 players selected had participated in an ice hockey tournament, while 20-odd national players, who have been participating in Winter Games at the national level, were ignored in the selection process. Two of these 20 players have even represented India in under-20 boys' tournaments at the international level. The court passed the orders on a petition filed by five ice hockey players from Pune and Sangli. According to their counsel, advocates Vinod Sangvikar and Shubham Sonawane, Teli Ugale had issued a notification for the tryouts on January 12 and conducted the trials at Nigdi the very next day. Pointing to another anomaly, the advocates said 19 participants had turned up for the trials, and every one of them had been selected for the squad, against a team of six which would compete in the games. The lawyers further said that the ad-hoc committee had written to the sports commissioner, pointing out that 18 of the 19 players selected had never participated in a tournament, whereas at least 20 national players, including the five petitioners, had been left out of the selection process. "It is quite visible that those 20 players whose names are mentioned in the e-mail dated 15.01.2026, were National Players who have been participating in Winter Games at the National Level and two of them represented the Indian Contingent of Under-20 Boys at the International Level. All of them have been left out," the judges said while staying the selection until further orders. The court has posted the petition for further hearing on February 18. Calling the trials a "fraud", Harjinder Singh, general secretary of the Ice Hockey Association of India, said the Maharashtra association has been embroiled in an administrative mess for a few years, which had forced the national body to appoint various ad-hoc committees. "What's happening in Maharashtra, and this particular episode, is nothing short of a fraud. With certificates of participation from Khelo India Winter Games, people are eligible to get government jobs. It's a racket everyone wants to be a part of. People who are genuine ice hockey players are not being considered, and people who are not genuine are after these certificates," alleged Singh. "At the end of the day, they make a mockery of the sport."...