DEHRADUN: Mir Ranjan Negi, the former Indian women hockey coach, now wants to play another inning to revive the sagging fortunes of the Indian men’s hockey and says his new book “From Gloom To Glory” would inspire youngsters.
Negi, on whose life the Yashraj flick “Chak De India” was picturised, is planning to open new hockey academies across the country to coach the youngsters in the field of hockey.
“Already, we have opened three academies in Maharashtra and wants to open few more in Indian including Uttarakhand,” Negi said on Sunday.
These academies would be run by Abhi Foundation, which was recently opened by Negi in memory of his late son, who met with a tragic accident.
Negi is also planning to bring glamour to the Indian hockey for which he has tied up with film star Suneil Shetty’s Popcorn firm. He said he would organise a “celebrity match” in Chandigarh in November for popularising hockey once again in India.
For this purpose, Negi is trying to rope in top film stars like Shah Rukh Khan and others.
Besides this, Negi also appealed to the corporate world to come forward to the aid of hockey. “We need the support of corporate world,” he said.
To a question, he criticised the role of former Indian Hockey Federation Chief K P S Gill, saying he never wanted to improve the hockey in the country.
1 Comment
Negi may be a modest man… but I feel that you are doing more talking than doing anything in action. As a player you were a big failure in 1982. As a coach, I never saw you giving any put to Goalkeepers on the field other than asking players just to hit the ball on to the goal. Now academies… I have never seen you in action in any of the academies that has come in Maharashtra… Stop talking… and get into the field and start coaching. As long as you were in the national panel you did something to players.. But once you are out of national panel, you seem to talk more and coach the press rather than players