The ame of hockey is believed to be in existence, some 1200 years before the ancient Olympic Games. In 1928, hockey became India’s national game and was played for the first time at the Olympics. The Indians won gold without suffering a single defeat in all the matches they played. From 1928 to 1956, India dominated the world in the sport, bagging 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals at the Olympics.
After the 1980s though, Indian hockey began its decline. Traditionally, hockey was played on natural grass which changed to Astroturf. This affected Indian hockey and threatened its existence. In sports, the players must be the stars but in Indian hockey, some administrators usurped that role. Through traditional hockey, India has produced the likes of Dhyan Chand, KD Singh, Zafar Iqbal, Syed Ali, Mohammed Shahid, Balbir Singh Sr and Balbir Singh Khular.
Slowly but steadily, Odisha has emerged as the new home of Indian hockey, with the Sundargarh region as its epicentre. The story goes that hockey was introduced in Sundargarh by the European missionaries who came to the tribal region in the 1860s. The schools set up by them in this area had hockey as one of the extracurricular activities. In the Gangpur region, a part of the Chotanagpur Plateau which includes Ranchi, Gumla, Khunti and Simdega of Jharkhand, Sundargarh of Odisha and Jashipur of Chhattisgarh, hockey is popular among the Orams, the Kharia, the Munda and the Bhuniya tribals. Even old people can be seen playing hockey in villages.
Olympian Michael Kindo, who played in the 1972 Games, talks of how the game, after being introduced by missionaries, subsequently seeped into their culture. The children watch hockey matches being played from their childhood and the sport is ingrained into their DNA.
There are many amusing local customs connected to hockey. There is the ‘Prem Bhoj’ where grooms go to find a bride in a village. There a hockey match is conducted, where the winner takes home a khasi (goat), chicken or eggs as prize. The Goat Cup or the Khasi Cup is one of the fixtures in the hockey calendar here. Dilip Tirkey, Sundargarh’s first Olympian, says he never thought playing hockey would make him so famous. After Sansarpur in Jalandhar, Punjab, Sundargarh is arguably the most important centre of Indian hockey, producing five national team captains — Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey and Prabodh Tirkey in the men’s team and Subhadra Pradhan and Jyoti Sunita Kulu in the women’s team. It has also produced more than 60 international hockey players including Olympians Lazarus Barla, William Xalco, Birendra Lakra and Sunita Lakra.
The state government, in 1984, introduced a sports hostel in Panposh, Rourkela to nourish talented youngsters there. Subsequently, another two hostels were developed at Sundergarh by the Sports Authority of India and the Odisha government helped players participate in the national championships. The schools and hostels of Sundargarh have produced more than 12,000 national hockey players with around 10,000 of them earning their livelihoods by getting sports quota jobs in Railways, PSUs like ONGC, Indian Oil, Punjab National Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Odisha Police and the Postal Department.
Hockey is a power game which needs strength and stamina. It is believed that the natural soil and rock in the limestone belt of Gangpur, with its abundance in calcium percentage strengthens the bones of the people in this area and makes them energetic. The state government’s initiative and commitment to develop hockey in the state has motivated the players here. The inclusion of defenders Birendra Lakra and Amit Rohidas in the World Cup team is a matter of honour for the state. A slogan for the 2018 World Cup is ‘The Cup is coming to India’. Hopefully, that turns out to be true in every sense.(The writer is the general secretary of Hockey Gangpur)
Hidden gems
The tribal regions of Odisha have become a talent pool of hockey. In these villages, even elders play. Children watch these matches and the sport gets ingrained into their DNA at a formative stage. Sports hostels have helped in nurturing this reservoir of talent.