THOOTHUKUDI: As many as seven players from Kovilpatti have been shortlisted for the Tamil Nadu sub-junior men's hockey team which is set to participate in the national-level tournament scheduled in Chandigarh from September 23 to October 3. Teams from nearly 28 states will participate in the tournament.
The hockey unit of the state conducted a 10-day training camp for 50 sub-junior level hockey players and announced the 25-member list on Monday, and the final 18-member squad representing the state on Tuesday.
While 15 players are from hostels of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) located in Ariyalur, Tiruchy, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, and Tirunelveli, three players — R Subash, S Kanish Kumar and S Lakshmanan Sri — are non-hostel students who entered the team by displaying their self-groomed skills.
Interestingly, seven of the 18 players of the squad hail from Kovilpatti, and while six of them study in SDAT hostels in other districts, one is a non-hostel student. Kovilpatti is already popular as the hockey hub of Tamil Nadu and is referred to as ‘Hockeypatti’ in local parlance.
"Subash, one among the three non-hostel students, hails from Kovilpatti and is a Class 11 student at the Kovilpatti VOC Government Higher Secondary School. He has managed to secure a place in the state hockey team due to the infrastructure available in Kovilpatti to improve his skills," said C Guru Chitra Shanmuga Bharathi, secretary, Hockey Unit of Thoothukudi.
Kovilpatti has a Sports Hostel of Excellence (SHE), the only facility in the state meant for college students, and an SDAT Astroturf Hockey Stadium that nurtures students from SDAT hostels. Hockey players largely come from districts such as Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tiruchy, Chennai, Ramanathapuram, Madurai and Ariyalur.
"While cities such as Chennai, Tiruchy, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Kovilpatti and Tirunelveli have astroturf hockey grounds, the other districts don’t. The availability of infrastructure has been an advantage for hockey players and plays a vital role in grooming the players at the early stages," said Bharathi.
Evidently, there are no players from other districts, especially the western districts of Coimbatore, Salem, Namakkal, Karur and Dharmapuri as they lack turfs and other infra.
"The eight districts between Krishnagiri and Ooty have no turf, despite having wonderful players. They must go to Tiruchy or Madurai for training sessions," said Senthil Rajkumar, secretary of the Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu.
"Tamil Nadu has only seven synthetic astroturf hockey grounds overall. Turf is mandatory as all match formats are played on turfs. After 1982, all international matches shifted to turf grounds and gravel pitches are outdated," Rajkumar said, adding that the state government should plan for synthetic astroturf hockey grounds, with at least one for every district so that many young budding players could enter the state team.
Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu president Sekar G Manoharan said three new astroturfs have been planned at Ariyalur, Tiruvannamalai and Chengalpattu districts. “We are far ahead when compared to other states,” he said.