Kodagu can help in revival of Hockey | A. Jayaram

Published on 22-03-2008 In Sports

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Kodagu can help in revival of Hockey

Most households in the country would have heard of the names of cricket stars of Karnataka like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath or newcomer Robin Uthappa. But the name of Vokkaliga Ramachandra Raghunath might sound strange. He is the hockey star from Kodagu in the State who was prominent in the Olympic qualifying tournament held in Santiago (Chile). As India lost to Britain and failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, nobody took note of the showing of Raghunath. He scored the second highest number of goals in the tournament. One agrees with what the former hockey star Dhanraj Pillai had sighed "I should have been born a cricketer" while reacting to the release of the Hindi film Chak De.

Indian hockey has no doubt reached its nadir and will be out of the Olympics for the first time in 80 years. However a critical appraisal proves wrong that the Santiago defeat marks the end of the 80 year dominance of India in international hockey. The decline in standards has been steady in the last 28 years. The last time India won an Olympic Gold was in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics. However that Olympics had been boycotted by some of the major playing nations including Pakistan. Since then India has remained a middle level hockey power. Our reign was from 1928 to 1960 when it lost the final to Pakistan 0-1 in the Rome Olympics under the captaincy of Leslie Claudius. However India's position was under threat ever since the creation of Pakistan. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, though we won the Gold against Pakistan, there was spirited challenge from Australia which had in its team some Anglo-Indian immigrants from India.

It cannot be forgotten that when India won its first Olympic Gold in hockey and also in the Olympics in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, our team had a good number of Englishmen. However it was led by the Oxford educated Jaipal Singh. He did not lead the team in the final match against Poland which India won 6-0 . Jaipal Singh later made it big in politics and has been hailed as the founder of the Jharkand State. He and his wife Jahanara distinguished themselves as parliamentarians.

Dearth of talent and interest in the game are perhaps the major reasons for the reversal of our fortunes in what was being called the national game. With the defeat in South America, hockey has become the notional national game and cricket has taken its place. Those well versed in the game and more than that well informed about hockey politics, are convinced that there is logic and strength in the demand for shaking up the hockey establishment, the Indian Hockey Federation. The first who needs to be shown the yellow card is its President, the former Punjab police chief K.P.S.Gill. The former man in khaki has remained at the top of the hockey establishment for too long and the time has come for him to quit. Gill's arrogance is well known. He once had two journalists thrown out of a press conference addressed by him as they posed inconvenient questions. He has been suffered for too long.

With big money flowing into cricket turning it into a business and the national obsession with it, it is no wonder hockey has become an underdog. There are not many wielding the stick and even those who do so, get little encouragement and money.

However there is no need to despair. The rejuvenation of Indian hockey can begin from Karnataka and especially the tiny hill district of Kodagu which has emerged as the nursery of talent in other games as well. Kodagu can boast of national cricketer Robin Uthappa, Davis Cup tennis player Rohan Bopanna and Asian women's champion in squash Jyotsna Chinnappa.

There is fervour and a fever for hockey in Kodagu and its family tournaments have turned unique. Its current hockey notables include Arjun Halappa, Vikram Kant, Hariprasad, Sandeep Somesh, and V.S.Vinay besides Raghunath. Kodagu has emerged as the major centre for hockey after Punjab. It is also the major centre for sports in general after Bangalore. One cannot wish away the "regional imbalances "in the development of sports in Karnataka with many of the districts contributing little. Even Mysore city has slipped in its standing.

One of the major reasons for the decline of sporting talent in the country is the disappearance of playgrounds in all our urban areas and in Bangalore in particular. Hockey like cricket and football requires vast space. The construction of high cost stadia is no solution as few children or youth qualify to play in them. Most of the stadia and sports bodies are better known for their clubs which accept donations to confer membership. It has become more prestigious and satisfying to secure membership of those clubs than playing games like cricket, hockey or tennis. Indoor stadia built in Bangalore for the 1996 National Games are today being misused to hold exhibitions and even serve as kalyan mantaps!

Though not the no. one State, Karnataka has managed to remain a major State in hockey. But the decline is striking in women's hockey which had its Golden Age from 1960-70. In that time, the Mysore (Karnataka) team won the blue riband of women's hockey, the Lady Ratan Tata Trophy for eight consecutive years. One should remember those worthy ladies who made Karnataka proud- the Britto sisters, Elvira (Captain), Rita and Mae, Nirmala Mandanna, Esther Herbert, Marie Narayanan, Shirley Fitzgerald, Durdhana Gill, Heather Colaco and Jacky Colaco.At one time, the national women's hockey squad had seven members from Mysore.

It was the erstwhile Bangalore Cantonment, which was the Mecca of Hockey in the country. How can one forget the great players from Karnataka- Deshmuthu (goalkeeper), V.J.Peter and Manuel who played for the Madras Engineer Group and Centre and represented the Services, R.A.Christy (Goalkeeper) , Bellimoga Govinda, former national captain M.P.Ganesh (called the "tiger"), A.B.Subbaiah, K.K.Poonacha and C.S.Poonacha (the last five were from Kodagu District) and goalkeeper Ashish Ballal. The players in the frontline today are Arjun Halappa and Bharat Chetri. A word about Deshmuthu might be of interest. A Bangalore cantonment policeman, he had been arrested and detained along with several of his colleagues as they went on a strike protesting against the merger of the Cantonment police force with the Mysore Police. The latter had opened fire killing three Cantonment police constables. Bangalore Cantonment merged with Mysore State more than two years after Independence-in October 1949. It is called the Retrocession of Bangalore Civil and Military Station (or Cantonment) which was earlier part of British ruled Madras Presidency. The treatment meted out to Deshmuthu in 1949 shows what the attitude towards the national game was even in the Golden Age of Hockey. Can anyone imagine anyone of those auctioned cricketers being arrested and detained?

With better encouragement and financial support, hockey in the Kodagu District as also Karnataka can develop and regain its lost glory. The IHF, the Karnataka Government and the corporate sector have to contribute to the revival of the game.

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