Hockey Hub Nilgiris Awaits Synthetic Turf

Ooty:As the Hockey World Cup is all set to get under way in Belgium and the Netherlands from Saturday, it is not surprising that the world sports attention has turned towards hockey.

Hockey legends would say, “You only live once. But, if you play hockey, once is enough,” as such was the popularity of this game, which is a combination of challenge and enjoyment that defined it as a great sport of thrills and skills.

Field hockey is a blend of intense physical endurance, technical skill, and fast-paced play, holding deep national importance across several continents.

Though hockey is the de facto national game of India, as India won eight Olympic gold medals, a world cup and many Asian-level championships, which would speak volumes about the popularity and significance of hockey in India, in fact, after 1981, India has been struggling in the global hockey area.

The only solace was India clinching bronze in the 2021 and 2024 Olympics that renewed the hopes of revival of hockey in India.

In the Nilgiris, which was considered a hockey hub in the past, hockey links are astonishing as the hilly district produced over 70 hockey talents, including two international players, who played at the national level in various categories.

S. Anantha Krishnan, president of the Hockey-Nilgiri, said climatic conditions in the Nilgiris do a world of good to practice hockey, especially in the Coonoor limits. Hockey talents from the Nilgiris that includes Anand Kumar, Deepak, Vignesh, Badhusha, Suraj, Vignesh, Deepak Aravind, Manikandan, Parithi Ilamvazhuthi, Lingarajan, Kavin, Manoj, Melwin, Sijumon, Rajkumar and Vinod Sanjay made it to the national level.

K. Ganesh represented the country in a four-nation junior tournament, besides several players have donned the university colours.

C. Ashok Kumar from the Nilgiris worked as analyst for the senior men hockey team at Tokyo Olympics as also for the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Cup.

Hockey in the Nilgiris was unparalleled when hockey was being played on the normal grass turf or soil surface. The 1968 Indian hockey men squad for the Mexico Olympics trained in the Nilgiris. In the same year, hockey national championship tourney for the Rangaswamy Cup was held in Coonoor-Wellington limit in the Nilgiris.

Even today, the Nilgiris has in it nearly 15 exclusive hockey clubs with 30 teams among them, besides the school teams.

This proves the love continuing for hockey in the Nilgiris. But, the only drawback, which is also very serious, is that there is no synthetic hockey turf in the Nilgiris to develop modern hockey. The lack of this facility has become a big handicap to promote and develop hockey to the expected and next level in the Nilgiris.

“To match strides at national and international competitions in hockey, practising and training in synthetic hockey turf is vital. Hockey-Nilgiris had been knocking on the doors of the Central and state governments for more than a decade to lay a synthetic hockey turf in the Nilgiris. In 2022, when the then chief minister M.K. Stalin visited the Nilgiris, the hockey unit here met him and handed over a letter requesting him to take steps to lay synthetic hockey turf in the Nilgiris. We had been informed that the officialdom in the Nilgiris was instructed to identify the land to lay the synthetic turf. Till date, nothing tangible has happened as the process is progressing at snail’s pace. We want the present Chief Minister, C. Joseph Vijay, to personally focus on the issue and sanction necessary funds and orders to lay synthetic hockey turf in the Nilgiris and make it part of the TVK government’s Olympic Centre of Excellence scheme, as quite a few hockey legends and coaches of the country, including former India hockey captain V.J. Philips, hailing from Tamil Nadu, advocated for laying synthetic hockey turf in the Nilgiris to utilise the climate and high-altitude advantage to train national prospects besides hone up the hockey talents in the Nilgiris to groom them for future modern hockey,” he added.