THE BRITISH may have left India a full 61 years ago, but their language still seems to rule. Tribal hockey players from the hinterland feel that it’s not the dexterity of their sticks alone that determines their career growth; rather it is also their proficiency in the Queen’s language that counts.

Former international Savitri Purti feels that she was denied captaincy of the Indian team during the 1986 Asian Games largely on account of her lack of language skills. “In spite of being a good player, I was pushed to the backseat just because I could not speak in English,” she says. That bit gnaws still as she is making sure her daughter does not face any such discrimination. The child is a student of in Loreto Convent, one of the elite English-medium schools of the city.

Coming from underprivileged background with no or just elementary education to lean on, most of the women hockey players in Jharkhand just cannot speak English. Government Girls’ School, Bariatu, has produced many a national and international woman hockey players. All the girls here are from tribal or rural areas. They can dribble mean, but can’t dab ble easy in the world of nouns and verbs.

Anila Soshan Bek, who hails from Simdega, says: “I can understand the language but can’t speak. This, at times, demoralises me. But after long hours on the field we just cannot devote time to anything else.” Silvanti Minjur, another tribal player, echoed similar: “Our day starts at 4 am and ends at 10 pm. After that how can we devote any time to learn English? Besides, we cannot afford tuitions.”