‘Hockey needs a permanent centre’

Indian hockey team’s chief assistant coach SS Grewal on Saturday stressed the need to have a specialised training centre for the sport and said he is going to take up the issue with the Hockey India and the Sports Ministry.

“It’s imperative to have one training centre permanently for the camps,” said the former India international on the final day of a month-long national probables camp. “Whatever equipment one needs for training should be available at the training centre as one can’t keep shifting from place to another.

“Make one centre as the official training venue and have all your national camps there. Bangalore is the ideal place since it has great weather, hostel facilities and one can train for most part of the season. Once we have a new turf, Bangalore could be an excellent option.

“In Australia, Perth is the main training centre, Germany has Monechengladbach while Bisham Abbey serves Britain. When you keep shifting camps there is a lot of wastage of time. In these countries you just hit the centre and you can start training right away. I am going to mention this in my camp report,” added Grewal, who is the chief co-ordinator of the camp.

Part of Grewal’s concerns arises due to the quality of turf at SAI which, after two years of lying inactive, was not conducive for fast-paced hockey. A few days’ training in the first phase was held at MEG after parts of the turf were found too slippery.

Although praising SAI for its overall facilities, Grewal said he will request the Ministry to install a new turf as the present one is worn out. “In the second phase, we are planning to have at least one session every day either at MEG or KSHA. Primarily, because the turfs are new and we can do all out training. I have nothing against the SAI turf but it being old it’s not possible to have fast-paced training. Your pushing and hitting varies on an old turf as compared to a new one. Many guys think that their pushing and hitting is good but put them on a new turf you find them lacking in pace.”