Punjab boosts hockey revival

Thanks to mushrooming sports academies, Punjab is once again becoming the nursery of hockey, India's national game that has in recent years become a poor cousin to cricket.

Nine of the players in the Indian team that thrashed Argentina 6-1 to win the junior World Cup hockey title, in Australia last month, for the first time were from the northern state where sports has been a way of life.

The squad included ace forward Gagan Ajit Singh -- whose father Ajit, uncle Harmeek and cousin Navsher also represented India -- penalty-corner expert Jugraj Singh and Deepak Thakur, the highest scorer in the tournament -- all of whom have expanded Punjab's rich hockey lineage.

Sports watchers are confident most of them would end up representing the senior Indian national side soon.

A large number of private and government-backed hockey academies that have mushroomed all over Punjab are largely responsible for producing these talented and versatile youngsters.

These include the Surjit Hockey Academy, the Ramesh Academy and the Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) Academy, all located in Jalandhar. The Sports School in Punjab is another centre for grooming talent.

Then there is the Sports Authority of India's centre of excellence in Patiala, where the mercurial Deepak Thakur learnt his initial lessons from coach Inderjit Singh Gill.

One of the well-established hockey schools is the PSB Academy, where Ajit Pal Singh, captain of India's 1975 World Cup-winning team, and known coaches are involved in selecting and training boys aged between 15 and 18 years.

Rajinder Singh, coach of the Indian team that triumphed in Hobart, is a coach here.

"We provide jobs to the exceptionally talented boys in our bank, besides supplying the talent to other government departments like Border Security Force and Punjab Police," said Charanjit Singh, who looks after the academy.

"Generally boys in Punjab are not picking guns now; they are picking hockey sticks," he added, referring to the violent decade where Sikh separatists held sway in the prosperous state bordering Pakistan.

Apart from these private academies, good facilities are available at Sainik School at Kapurthala and there is a modern hockey stadium in Chandigarh, where locals polish their skill on astro-turf.

However, much of the credit for Punjab's hockey renaissance goes to K P S Gill, president of the Indian Hockey Federation, who, as the Punjab police chief, played a key role in wiping out terrorism in 1993.

Since he took over the reins of IHF in the early 1990s, most national camps have been held in Punjab and modern facilities have been provided at places where hockey is almost a passion -- like in Jalandhar, Patiala and Chandigarh.

"The basic reason for Punjab's resurgence is that the people have hockey in their blood," said IHF secretary K. Jothikumaran. "The boys are naturally gifted and they get encouragement to take up the game when they watch well-known players in action."

Indeed, Punjab has a glorious history of having produced world-renowned Olympians like the two Balbir Singhs, Surjit Singh, Udham Singh, Ajit Pal Singh and Pargat Singh.

"Basically Punjab has a hockey culture, which is not found anywhere else in India," said Shiv Kumar Verma of the Nehru Hockey Society. "In addition, the Punjab government has done a lot for the game, by way of infrastructure and incentives."

There is another hockey school, the Thapar Academy, at Sansarpur -- a unique village near Jalandhar that has produced 14 Olympians. They include Udham Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Jagjit Singh and Balbir Singh Kullar.

But today this village suffers from the lack of modern facilities.

Indo-Asian News Service