| Issue 23 Vol I, September 15, 2006 | Archive |
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Indian Hockey in Doldrums
I live in the United States. I have seen the level of physical fitness of the American sportsmen even in the most insignificant local level tournaments. Looking at the America's ordinary athletes, I am firmly of the opinion that if the Americans start taking men's hockey seriously, within a span of ten years, they can be at par with the best in the World. India's bane has been the lack of planning for the future. We have not even thought of feeding our hockets properly since their growing years of childhood. The European people, like the Americans, are much better fed from the womb of the mother to the teens. Let us start analyzing Indian hockey's state of health since the 1920s. Our earlier hockets came from four predominant ethnic groups. The first being that of the crossbred and well-bred Anglo-Indians who were tall, broad shouldered and strong bicepped sprinting athletes and they taught hockey to the others. The second ethnic group consisted of strong muscled beef eater Muslims mostly from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozpur, Lahore, Sialkot, Sheikhupura and Gujjranwala districts of un-divided Punjab. The third group consisted of tall and robust milk drinking and meat eating Sikhs from Jalandhar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozpur, Moga, Lahore, Sialkot, Gujjranwala, Sheikhupura, Lyallpur and Sahiwal districts of the then un-divided Punjab. And the fourth main group comprised of wealthy rural area based landlord Hindus from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. We have lost two of these four groups. The independence of India started the exodus of Anglo-Indians to the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. Punjab was ethnically cleansed of all the Sikhs and Hindus in Western (Pakistani) Punjab and nearly cleansed of all the Muslims in the Eastern (Indian) Punjab. On arrival in Eastern Punjab, the grown up Sikhs still did reasonably good in hockey, but those in the growing years, due to abject poverty, were seriously deprived of good growth oriented food. It is these folks who took charge of the post 1964 Indian hockey teams. In the meanwhile the de-facto leadership of Indian Hockey Federation shifted to the south of the country. As a result the best infrastructure for hockey was developed in the three southern states of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. But talent in the south did not keep pace with the creation of infrastructure. By 1964, the Europeans were not markedly superior to our hockets in strength, speed and stamina. During the past four decades, the bug of gym culture and highly scientific nourishing food has bitten the Europeans. They want to beat the Americans, Australians and the New Zealanders. On the other hand the Canadians, Americans, Australians and the New Zealanders want to maintain their edge in physical fitness. This healthy competition of physical fitness is making the athletes of the European nations better than us and the gap is increasing with every passing day. KPS Gill, since the nineties is contented in merely being the figure head of the IHF. He seems to lack the vision also. Under his leadership the process of real nation-wide talent hunt has come to a grinding halt. The nation's most representative tournament for talent hunt, the National Hockey Championship has been deliberately discontinued for years. The ambitious Secretary General of the Indian Hockey Federation Mr. Jyoti Kumarran is the real man behind the gun. The selection committee is a puppet in his hands. He selects and discards the players for the international tournaments and he maneuvers the hiring and firing of the coaches. This is not the healthy way to create a world beating outfit. The physically strongest districts of Tarntaran, Gurdaspur, Ferozpur and Moga in Punjab are devoid of the facilities of astroturfs. Jalandhar, the home base of the largest number of national level teams, deserves at least three astroturfs, but it has only one, which is badly torn and is unfit to stage major tournaments. The players using it can get seriously hurt. Amritsar deserves at least two astroturfs, one for practice and one hour the tournaments, it has only one. In order to increase the running speed and muscle strength of our hockets, we need synthetic tracks and indoor gymnasiums along side the Astroturf. We lack all this at our major nurseries of hockey. Bhopal, which in the past produced some of the magnificent Olympian Hockets, got an Astroturf only a couple of years ago. Orissa, for the amount of talent it has, needs a lot more Astroturf’s than it has. Since the best hockey talent comes from the poorest families, we need to have a crash programme of feeding our budding hockey players since the age of 8 years. In America, even the poorest can afford the most nourishing diet from the day of birth, that is why they do not need a government program to feed their young. China, being a poor nation, has prepared a national programme of providing the finest diet to it’s would be athletes since the age of 4 years. KPS Gill can not think of such innovative planning. It is about time some other NGO's chalk out programmes to feed our would be athletes with the best food for growth, strength and stamina. It is a tough task to perform, but some one has to take the responsibility, otherwise our great nation's prestige will hurt every time we play a tournament. We, in the matter of sports, are sadly lagging far behind other important countries of the World. The Union Minister of Sports Mani Shanker Ayer is a visionary; he should wake up from his slumber. [16 Junction Pond Lane, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey 08852, USA. Phone 732 329 0981] |
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Kabbaddi stadium opens in Surrey
This is the first time in the history of North America that a special stadium has been built for a game that is struggling for survival even in its own native, Indian sub continent. The BC government has contributed $ 2,50,000 for the construction of the stadium with 1,400 benches. Despite rain, enthused Kabbaddi lovers gathered at the stadium to participate in the event that coincided with the first centenary of the arrival of Punjabi immigrants in Canada.
The opposition MLA, Harry Bains, another Indo Canadian politician - who is also the Olympics’ critic in the shadow cabinet said that the stadium is not enough. He said that his party, NDP wants that all the ethnic games including Kabbaddi be recognized by the BC government.
Bains had raised this demand a few days before the stadium was inaugurated. The Liberal supporters had accused him of trying to take credit for something their party was already working on. However, Campbell did not make any announcement regarding the recognition of the game but assured that his government is trying to include it in the 2008 multicultural events planned to celebrate 150 years of BC. Harry Bains said that Campbell has disappointed everyone by not making any categorical announcement to accord recognition to the game. Dave Hayer said that the opening up of a Kabbaddi stadium on the Canadian soil is no less than recognition. |
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THE
opening up of a Kabbaddi stadium in Surrey last weekend marked
another milestone in the Indo Canadian history. The BC Premier, Gordon
Campbell inaugurated the stadium for a 2500 years old rural game of Punjab
last Saturday.
The local
Kabbaddi associations were lobbying for a special stadium for the past
several years. Dave Hayer, the Indo Canadian MLA in the BC Liberal
government said that there is no such facility for Kabbaddi even in Punjab
as it doesn’t need one. However, the BC government while acknowledging the
multiculturalism agreed to build such facility in the city where Punjabi is
the second widely spoken language after English.
Harry Bains
said since Vancouver is going to host the 2010 winter Olympics, the BC
government should give due recognition to the games of differently
nationalities. He explained that this would automatically give the
Kabbaddi players a chance to play in the state sponsored sport events.