10th Jan 2005: We saw in the PHL prologue how in India triangular forces – (teams from State, Club and Institutions) were at war each other to garner the domestic audience. It’s fair conclude that none of them could accomplish the task to perfection. The Club culture almost dried up, States somehow survived (to vote in the IHF election) and the Institutions turned out to be provenance of talent but could not muster loyal fans to a level that can sustain a domestic support structure.
Finally, when the IHF decided to accord associate membership to nearly 20 institutions and allowed them to field their teams in the National Championship, it was by far the biggest onslaught on the phenomenon of States that fed the National teams in the early decades of Independent India. However, a couple of States survived the crisis thanks to refusal of some leading institutional teams in the States to apply for Associate membership. Punjab is one such. It’s another matter the State would have survived even if some Institutional teams opted to join the membership bandwagon, as it has enough inherent strength with unending stream of talent sprouting from every galli and mohalla.
Just read the composition of Sher-e-Jalandhar team. Not other four teams are anything close as native as that of Sher-e-Jalandhar. This is a talent pool of a single state, with a couple of Namdharis from adjacent Haryana, fittingly representing Jalandhar, a city once its son of the soil Ashwini Kumar made it ‘Sports Capital of India’. Jalandhar alone is home of six teams, Punjab Police, Punjab and Sind Bank, Border Security Force, Indo-Tibet Border Police and others. This city alone hosts three All India Grade I tournaments in hockey, a unique domestic record. About 30 former Olympians and a dozen from the present National side reside in the city.
Jalandhar is a unique city in India that had the distinction of hosting at least once the Nationals for every sporting discipline, water sports excluded. The combination of Raja Bhalindra Singh and Ashwini Kumar, sports administrators of great calibre, did wonders for sports in Punjab. While most of the princely states in the colonial era identified themselves with the rulers (For instance, prince Ranjit Singh, the Cricket King from Gujarat State called himself English and never played for and encouraged Indians to take up sports), the Patiala clan from Yadvindra Singh down to present IOC member Randhir Singh stood by India. When Bhalindra Singh, brother of Yadvindra, was president of both Amateur Athletic Federation of India and the Indian Olympic Association, Ashwini Kumar has been his close confidente, being Secretary Generals both IOA and AAFI, besides the president of the IHF. They had a healthy rivalry. If a meet takes place in Patiala, hometown of Yadvindra and Bhalindra, sure enough the other will come to Jalandhar, Ashwini’s birthplace. This way sports benefited in a big way. In fact the state of Punjab produced all but one of five IOC members that India had in India.
Hockey in particular flourished in Punjab. As far as hockey talent is concerned, one can easily equate Punjab with rests of India. The reason being the state’s ability to spot and groom talent. This is where States like Uttar Pradesh, equally known for hockey potential but failed to harness for want of infrastructure and State patronage. In Punjab, among other things, the heads of Sports Department of Punjab had some illustrious names as its head. Triple hockey Olympian Balbir Singh, 400m hurdles world record holder Milkha Singh and till recently full back Col. Raminder Singh steered the sporting culture in the state. Punjab has maximum hockey nurseries, maximum synthetic turf and the state takes hockey very seriously. Punjabis head not only various state HA in India (Dilbaksh Singh in Mumbai, Gurbux in Bengal) and the IHF (KPS Gill), but also other countries likes Kenya. Punjabis were part of many national teams of other countries like Great Britain, Kenya, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore. The Pan Punabi hockey culture speak for their heart for hockey. Therefore, no surpirse Punjabis are there in every team in the PHL be it Chennai Veerans or Hyderabad Sultans.
Victories and defeats in hockey are recognised in a big way in Punjab. When the Jr. world Cup team returned from Hobart, receptions and processions were held in every village and towns whence the team member hailed. Compare this with the players of the same team (Ignace, Bimal, Sandeep, Halappa and Bipin Fernades) whose return went largely unnoticed but for media.
When the IHF held a reception to the victorious 2001 Jr. World Cup, chief minister of Punjab Prakash Singh Badal walked in and announced Rs. 1 lack to each of the members. Underline the word ‘each’ of the members. Within a couple of months, the amounts were also disbursed. No other states even gave token reward to their own players, not to talk of others