Two day before the tourney begins at BHU Amphitheatre clay court, the central varsity team is anything but finalised.

“We have not yet decided the team. Four of the five players including captain Akanksha Tripathi, Kriti Singh, Shashi Prabha and Ramrekha Kumari have been confirmed, while the fifth place will be decided by a challenge match between Priya Mishra and Marshilla today,” BHU University Sports Board (USB) general secretary Vidya Sagar Singh told The Indian Express on Tuesday.

While at least one of the players is well groomed in the game, there is no specialised coach to assist the team.

There will not be any tennis coach, but A K Wadi, a professional life guard in Physical Education Department of the university, who will enact the role of BHU’s Tennis coach at the tourney which is one of the two qualification conduits for the All India Inter University Tournament to be hosted by Mangalore University from January 11.

“Recently I enacted the role of coach during the East Zone Men’s tourney at BHU courts where the hosts were pulverised by Manipur University in the first match only. Any game under the USB which has no coaches, is looked after by me only,” Wadi maintained.

The absence of a professional tennis coach since early 1990s is shocking given that BHU Vice Chancellor Panjab Singh is an ardent tennis admirer and player, whose efforts have resulted in two clay and one synthetic court in the university.

Tennis is not the only racket game without a professional coach, but others like Squash Racket, Badminton and Table Tennis are also taken care by part-timers.

While Wadi takes care of Table Tennis and Squash Racket, it is the deputy director of Bharat Kala Bhawan Musuem, Naval Krishna, who accompanied the Badminton team at zonal and national tournaments recently.

“It is suprising but true that a man specialising in preserving antiquities is forced to take care of BHU Badminton team,” Singh said.

Only six of the 29 games coming under the USB — Wrestling, Hockey, Volleyball, Swimming, Best Physique-Weigthlifting and Soccer have full time coaches, including Additional Directors (AD), said Singh himself an AD-cum-coach of BHU Volleyball team.