Steeped In Tradition, Namdhari Boys Aim For The Skies

Chennai: Imagine a bunch of players, in their dhotis, moving up and down in the same pace for 70 minutes on the astro-turf. Sounds improbable, but that’s exactly what you’ll get to see if you’re watching a match involving Namdhari XI from Punjab.

The team, currently playing in the MCC Murugappa Gold Cup, has a rich tradition of producing quality hockey players, but what makes them really stand out is the rootedness to their culture and tradition.

Namdhari Hockey Academy (NHA) was formed by Sri Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji, Namdharis’ guru in early 80s and it provided opportunity to kids from 20 nearby villages to follow their passion. Since then, the academy has spread its wings and has become the cradle where young and talented players are groomed for the future.

“Long before Gandhiji started the Non Co-operation movement, our guru sri Satguru Ram Singh Ji started the Kuka movement. His motto was to reject all British aids and he went on to set our own post office, khadi, and school, which annoyed the British emperors and they punished him severely,” Olympian Didar Singh, who coaches at the Namdhari HQ in Ludhiana for the last six years, told The Times of India.

“Then, Jagjit Singh ji, who attached great importance to sports for the overall development of kids, thought of setting up a hockey academy to provide adequate training facilities to poor and talented kids, who belong to Namdhari families,” Didar added. He informed that currently 150 boys from 20 villages train in the academy in Jeevan Nagar, Haryana. “We have our own school which provides education to these kids. But the main aim is to make them better hockey players and Gurmeet Singh, along with other three coaches, are there to train them,” Didar said.

“The talented players are then sent to the headquarters in Sri Beni Sahab, a religious centre near Ludhiana, where we have our own astro-turf.” the coach added.

Currently, 60 boys practise at the main centre, 30 of whom are here for the Murugappa Cup, while the rest play for the U-16 team. The coach said that the NHA never stops any talented player, who does well at the national level, to take up good offers from the institutional sides.

“Didar Singh and his brother Sardara had good offers and they moved. So did Harpal Singh, who joined ONGC and Ajmer Singh and Joga Singh, who went to Air-India. Some of our players are settled in Canada and USA as well. We only look to groom more players so that the supply-line never stops,” Didar, who played in the Barcelona Olympics, said.

Their performance in the Murugappa Cup has been a touch disappointing, but the coach said that “these boys are just kids”. “For most of them, this is their first national tournament, so I don’t expect miracles from them. Still, we never tried to play defensive, because, we don’t believe in such tactics. Our kids play for the love of the game and learn it the hard way… A few defeats here and there don’t matter,” Didar said.

Does the NHA train talented boys from other religions? “Last year one guy from Mumbai came to train in our academy but he left after a while, because he couldn’t adjust to the system. We don’t have problem with trainess from other religions, it’s just that they have to follow the strict regimen, otherwise the system will crash.”

Non-vegetarian food is a strict no-no in the academy and even when the team travels, they carry the food materials which are being cooked by themselves.

“Kachcha is our traditional Sikh attire. When we were playing, we had to play in those kachchas. These days, the boys, are allowed to wear shorts over the kachchas, if they please,” the coach added.

The players, too, are happy with the way they have been groomed at the academy and hope for a bright future ahead.

AT A GLANCE

Namdhari Hockey Academy strictly believes in Sri Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji
Everybody attached to NHA is a vegetarian and not even drinks tea
Players don’t wear modern short pants. They wear traditional dhoti (Kachcha) during match
Four years back NHA had laid own astro-turf in its headquarters in Ludhiana in 2004