Hockey Year Book 2007, written by K. Arumugam, was released in a
simple function at the Hockey Club House Hall of the Karnataka State
Hockey Association, Bangalore on Friday, the 3rd August. Senior Olympian M.P. Ganesh, also
former Executive Director, Sports Authority of India (SAI), released
the book. Olympian midfielder B.K. Subramani received the first copy.
Kannan Krishnamurthy, Secretary, KSHA, welcomed the gathering which
included many of the city’s present and former hockey stars, SAI and
State’s Youth Services and Sports officials and SAI hockey team,
besides a host of other hockey lovers and officials.
Outlining the concept of Hockey Year Book, Krishnamurthy welcomed the
idea of releasing the book in the hockey conscious city. “K. Arumugam
has been releasing his books in Delhi and he thought of releasing it
here in Bangalore. We welcome his gesture. Arumugam has been bringing
out Hockey Year Books systematically since 1995. These biannual works
are pioneer in nature, offers variety of useful data for the stake
holders, and are helpful in proper understanding the game in a better
way. The Field Hockey Publication, which publishes these books, thus
contribute substantially to the game we all love”, he said. Briefing
the credentials of the author, he highlighted various works of him and
concluded, “in many ways Arumugam is hockey’s own Ramanchandra Guha,
noted cricket historian.”
On his turn, Arumugam informed that his are the only Hockey Year Books
in the world in the contemporary scene. He exhorted hockey lovers to
keep a positive frame of mind, and contribute whatever way they can,
as the sport is now going through a bad patch. Explaining various
academies started by players like Ashish Ballal, Pritam Rani Siwach,
Balwinder Singh and the spurt of infrastructure development in
various part of the country (Gurgaon, Bhopal, Lucknow and other
cities) he opined these things augur well for the game. He emphasized
that hockey is not an ordinary sport, but is collective consciousness
of the country, and its successful stride in the pre-independent era
is something of a folk fore stuff. “The sport has given so much honour
to us even when we were ruled by alien powers. So hockey is a
heritage, we have a bounden duty to protect and cherish it”, he said.
Arumugam informed his next book (Quiz) will be released at Chennai
during the Asia Cup tournament, in order to spread out.
Releasing the book, M.P. Ganesh, who has recently formed his own
hockey team, appreciated the effort of the author and invited everyone
connected with hockey to contribute. He in particular invited former
hockey player to come forward and to do whatever thy can to improve
the lot of hockey. Lamenting lack of genuine information on hockey,
he said that even players are not having their personal data like
caps, which are now being seen in the Year Books. “Frankly speaking I
myself don’t know how many matches I played and goals scored. This is
wrong. Past is past, and at least now onwards there should be a
genuine effort to work on these lines. The various chapters in the
book are thus useful to many, particularly to the stock of players”,
he said.
Accepting the first copy, Olympian B.K. Subramani said that players
should play the
game with concentration and never chase umpires which cause
irreparable damage to the side. “A player was looking at the umpire
instead of focusing on the ball, that time because of his lack of
concentration the ball was stolen and a goal was scored against us in
the opening match of the 1988 Olympics. We lost the match against
Russia by an odd goal. Is it not pitiable? he asked.
A photo exhibition depicting releasing ceremonies of last 13 years has
been organized and a copy of each book that the Field Hockey
Publication brought out so far, were also displayed.
An 18-page newsletter was also distributed to the audience.
M.A. Ponnapa, noted journalist, delivered the vote of thanks.
Some of the known personalities who attended the function include
Ashish Ballal, AB Subbaiah, Sandeep Michael, Arjun Halappa, trainer
Sampath, umpire Raghu Prasad.
Probodh Tirkey and Bharat Chikara were supposed to receive Hockey
Year Book Player of the Year Awards during the function, but they
could not turn up despite coach Joaquim Carvalho’s earlier commitment
to this effect. Mr. P.C. Chengappa, Vice-Chancellor, Agricultural
Sciences, Bangalore, could not review the book as expected, due to his
presentation to the visiting Prime Minister.
Almost all the leading newspapers and Doordarshan covered the event.