Jharkhand once known for its pool of hockey talents has failed to grab even a lone place in the strong 33 member squad of probable selected for the 13th Men’s Hockey World Cup commencing at Netherlands on May 31.
Citing proof for this failure, local experts of the game refer “communication gap from the State Government’s side to the budding talents in providing adequate facilities for this game”. Meanwhile, the government seems to be philosophical on its efforts for the same.Significantly, the same situation with different “circumstances” occurred in selection of State women players in the 8th Women’s Champion Challenge 1 conducted at Scotland from April 27 to May 4.
67 year old Sylvanus Dungdung who was the first to represent the region in such World Cup at Argentina in 1978 and is now working as Jharkhand Sports Coordinator said that most of the hockey players hail from Khunti, Simdega and Gumla districts but are unable to reach the state capital due to “Government’s negligence”.
“In our times, inter-district and inter-block tournaments were regularly held due to which it was easy for panchayat level players to contest till state level tournaments. Moreover, those days last period in schools was devoted to sports practice which is not done anymore. We had playgrounds within schools but now public grounds are given to most school students for practicing sports of their choice. Thereafter, the next generation players representing our state in international level have been absorbed by various government institutions,” Dungdung said.
Similar were the opinions of Hockey Jharkhand officials Savitry Purty and Suresh Kumar. “None of our senior male players are fit for international meets. However, there are juniors who are worthy enough for the same. Earlier, there were good ones in all the cadres,” said Purty, a former nation player.
Sharing the grass root level hurdles for this inability, Dungdung highlighted on the defects of Astroturf made in Gumla and Khunti besides the one at state capital’s Morhabadi ground. “We recently visited the turfs of Khunti and Gumla and found that they are not maintained. Proper water supply, electricity and boundary wall is a must for maintenance. The players obviously do not have sufficient infrastructure for practice which in turn hampers their performance,” he said.
Former Olympian Manohar Topno who is also a State Sports Coordinator stressed on senior player hostels, sports academy and sports university in the state capital to nourish the skills of players. He said, “Government assures to grant all necessities to players residing in villages but the implementation of such assurance has never happened.”
Notably, last year Topno and Dungdung were given the charge of visiting all the districts by state sports department for observing the problems of players. “In a meeting with Sports Director Dadan Choubey and Secretary Vandana Dadel held early this month, we requested them to provide us a vehicle for this surveillance pending since a year. There is a requirement of coaches as well,” said Topno.Sources also stated that the hosting of two Hockey India leagues (HIls) in Ranchi could not promote the game in real sense. “In HIl-2 held this year, we could not find a senior player of Jharkhand who was eligible for World Cup,” confirmed an official source of Hockey India.
Choubey however denied accepting such allegations, “Jharkhand government is regularly providing all the facilities. It is luck and not the government that did not favour our players this time.”