Father dies, Junior Star Birendra not aware of it
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Father dies, Junior Star Birendra not aware of it
A stick2hockey.com effort
So much of sacrifice goes into the making of a hockey player – stick2hockey.com has the very recent one – that not many of us are even aware of it.
Junior India’s striker Birendra Lakra ‘s father dies in Orissa, but he was not told of the demise till he returned to India five days later.
Ignace Lakra, 50, died of asthma related illness on 12th January at Rourkela. This information was not provided to Birendra who was then playing for India in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney, Australia.
“He normally calls me once or twice from the tours. He did not call this time. Even had he called we would not have informed him of this death. Because, he will be upset, his game will also be affected. After all he was playing for the country. Had it been a nearby country, at least he could have come for the cremation, from Sydney it is near impossible, what is use then in letting him know of this,” said his coach Raju Kant Saini.
“In any case he is not going to reverse the tragedy”
Birendra Lakra is a trainee of Rourkela based SAIL Hockey Academy of which Raju is the coach.
Birendra Lakra shot into the limelight when he scored all the four goals that his SAIL Academy scored in the final of the last year Junior National Championship. His graduation to national camp and then for Junior India is only a natural corollary.
The coach did not even want to inform Birendra of this news when the team landed in Delhi, but it seemed he got the news through other friends.
“I wanted to avoid him the trauma of traveling long distance with sadness. But when I received him at the Railways Station he told he knew it’, Raju elaborated.
His father was cremated the same day of his death. Ironically enough, the late Lakra was working in Rourkela Steel Plant hospital.
In the recent past, we had such a sad episode. Tushar Khandkar’s father died when he was playing in the 2005 Junior World Cup. Despite the tragedy, the great heart decided not to return.
Does the Indian public know of these specs of sacrifice from hockey players who are in their teens?
Birender is just 17 years and 10 month old, and is youngest of the five siblings of late Ignace Lakra.
Put your condolence message, we will ensure Birendra gets them all — to show we are with him in this hour of grief.
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It is sad such thing happened. Hope he comes out of this soon.
dear birendra, indeed its sad news,u have to face it bravely. we all are with you. Hats off to you.
VERY SAD INDEED .DEAR WE ARE WIOTH YOU .
Felt bad about the news.
God gives him peace.
please have moral courage to face all happened .
My heart felt condolences to Birendra and his family..I hope the almighty would give you enough strength and courage to face the heavy loss of your beloved father… My prayers are with you Birendra..I hope you would come out of the loss soon and do well for the country in the coming Junior World Cup in Singapore/Malaysia in 2009.
Incidentally when Tushar Khandekars father passed away in 2005 prior to the Junior World Cup in Rotterdam, we were training in Germany and we did send the boy back to India and ofcourse he returned back for the JWC in Rotterdam where he did miss a match.. Infact we got to thank relatives of Sandeep Singh who made it possible for the boy to travel all the way from Frankfurt to Munich to get access to the flight.. In this case, I appreciate the management of IHF who also made it possible for return of Tushar to Rotterdam to play the JWC.
RELLY SAD DEAR -TO FULFIL THE GOLDEN DREAMS OF YOUR FATHER YOU WILL HAVE TO PLAY WITH CHAK DE SPIRIT . THAT WILL BE A REAL TRIBUTE TO YOUR GREAT FATHER . RAJINDER KUMAR AMRITSAR (PUNJAB )