CUTTACK: Having dedicated almost six decades of his life to playing and developing hockey, Cuttack’s Prabhat Kumar Mishra feels the sport has undergone a sea change now.
“It was a lot different when we played. The game has become so fast now,” feels 87-year-old Mishra, who is synonymous with hockey in Odisha and Cuttack in particular. A veteran hockey player and first national-level hockey umpire from Odisha (in the 70s), Mishra started playing hockey during his Ranihat high school days and after joining the then Ravenshaw college (now university) in 1951, he played for Utkal University the same year. Captain of the university hockey team then, he played at university level for three years before playing for the state team.
“When we played hockey, it was normal field hockey and the rules were very different from what it is today. When European countries started changing hockey rules in the 70s, our Asian representative who was from Pakistan never bothered. They changed everything in the game for their own advantage because the Indian hockey that Dhyan Chand and his brother Roop Singh played was a sure shot to success,” he recalls.
So, while there was an end to the ‘bully-off’ at start, penalty stroke was reduced from 8 yards to 7 yards, hit-in was allowed from sidelines, among other things. “In the days when I was umpiring, bully-off was a beautiful technique and Indian players were masters in it. So Europeans changed it,” says Mishra who is also a former principal of Ravenshaw college.
Recalling his association with Dhyan Chand, he says although he is regarded as a legendary hockey player, his artistry was mostly due to his brother Roop. Mishra also remembers going to Sundargarh district with the then president of Orissa hockey association Amar Roy of Cuttack to scout for hockey talent and brought many of them to Bhubaneswar.
“We were amazed to see so many people playing hockey there with bamboo sticks. Later on, we noticed that hockey was played only in that part of Odisha, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh and after many deliberations, we concluded that the sport might have been introduced there by the German Christian preachers,” says Mishra.
He says hockey can prosper like cricket if the players are incentivised and provided all facilities and grounds to play. The sportsman, who is a former secretary of Odisha Sports Council and instrumental during the initial days of construction of Kalinga stadium, has a word of suggestion for the Odisha government. If Odisha wants to promote hockey, it should look at identifying talents from schools and colleges and grooming them in the sport, he says.
“Since the government is now promoting hockey at a massive level, it should focus on identifying the talents from all parts of the state and provide them facilities to grow as hockey champions,” says Mishra, sitting in a room full of awards that he got over the years for his contribution to not just hockey but other
sports too.