Editorial: Why national academy is a welcome step?

The announcement of setting up of National Hockey Academy at National Stadium in Delhi, coming as it is after the previous one that generated players of repute in trove has been put in limbo after 2010 Commonwealth Games, is a welcome step.

It seems Paradise is not lost for the National Stadium.

The Air India SAI National Hockey Academy, which produced stars such stars as Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur, Probhjot Singh etc functioned from the same premise for about one and half decades before wound up due to 2010 Commonwealth Games stadium renovation. It never came again. It was then a residential academy.

Shortly after Air India entered the final of the Junior Nationals in 1992, the excited Air India mooted a proposal to set up National Academy. It was set up the same year after selecting players from across India at National Stadium in New Delhi. The stadium then had just single synthetic turf, and two grass grounds. P.Raphel was the first Technical Director of the Academy. He was succeeded by Ajay Kumar Bansal, who was till recently chief hockey coach of NIS Patiala.Raphael is settled in Singapore.

A decade after Air India Academy, the Punjab National Bank came out with its own Academy which was also stationed at the same premise till 2008.

For any visitor to the stadium in those times, there will always be players on the turf unlike the present, due to these two functional residential academies.

National stadium is a vast sprawling campus, modernized for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The World Cup was held as a run up to the CWG.

For the CWG, three turfs were laid, which offered scope for more time for more players.

About a hundred rooms were also built on three sides of the stadium as a part of renovation. These rooms can easily accommodate 200-250 players at any given point of time. But alas, since last 5 years none of these rooms were opened due to lethargy of all those concerned.

Now that the National Academy is being set up there, it is hoped that these rooms will be utilized to accommodate 40 boys and 40 girls, and slowly the number might increase. The capacity expansions is all the more heartening.

There is hardly any Academy for girls so for in India. The proposed National Academy will have 40 girls too. This can partly solve the perennial problem of lack of quality players for the national duty. This is a giant step for women hockey.

Besides opening up of unutilized created infrastructure (rooms etc), the Academy will see better utilization of turf too in terms of actual occupancy.

The proposal appears sound what with scientific support and High Performance Coaches etc. However, caution has to be exercised as Govt schemes lose steam midway after fanfare opening spell.

Proper selection process is a must followed by extensive exposure competitions.

National stadium for many reasons is a lost paradise insofar as creating players, that too after Air India Academy had been abandoned.

The Academy can now bring back good olden days of National stadium which ironically named after Dhyan Chand.