One of Sundargarh’s superb sons Ignace Tirkey makes a personal milestone, which needs wide celebration, but goes off silently.
Hockey, many claim silently, is an illiterate’s game, though momentarily it appears an uncharitable comment. At the same time, if you look at the way great career milestones go unnoticed, it seems the claim is true. Recently one is Ignace’s milestone of victory which went without anyone taking a note — and notably we are not sure whether the player himself is aware of his personal milestone.
Ignace Tirkey, who gave the 2003 Asia Cup with that beautiful reverse hand shot in the final, has played his 200th international during the Australia tour recenlty.
Not many in the recent past could achieve this
He is the only player from the 2001 Junior World Cup team, not only still in the national team, but also to make the double century of caps.
Ignace made it to the national side under coach Cedric D’Souza at the Champions Challenge Cup, Kuala Lumpur, in 2001. His first foray into the senior side turned out to be a great occasion as India won the tournament, ironically defeating Argentina. Thereby India could get into the Champions Trophy fold after a gap of five years.
At the end of 2007, he had 184 caps. Then he played five matches against visiting Belgium, all six matches at Chile Olympic Qualifier. So, when he set foot on the Australian soil a month ago, his caps stood at 195. The first match he played at Darwin 4-Nation – and that was against South Korea — was his 200th.
s2h wishes Ignace many more personal milestonesAnd, also why not India media, hell bent on minor and passable things as milestones in other sports, take some interest and bring such personal achievements of hockey players to the public domain.