New Indian Express: State officials hope to solve Odisha’s player paradox

CHENNAI: Among the goalscorers at the ongoing Murugappa Gold Cup hockey meet in Chennai on Tuesday, there was one familiar name – Sudhir Kujur. The Hockey Odisha star, a prominent goal-getter throughout all the age-group sides, had scored a brace against Central Secretariat in a routine 3-2 win. For fans who religiously watch the junior nationals every year, a fair few from Odisha will be well known. For, they have won a hat-trick of junior nationals, including the one held in Bhopal this April.

Strangely enough, only one from Hockey Odisha (defender Suman Beck) made it to the 33-strong probables list for the junior national camp. That’s a ridiculously low number for a team which has an impressive recent track record at that level. Manager Laxmidhar Mohanty says the problem is due to two reasons.

“After a long time, two from the State have been selected for the national team (Amit Rohidas and Dipsan Tirkey, a junior World Cup winner, have been called up to the Europe Tour next week),” he says. “We are lacking because of a language problem and many players, by nature, are shy. They do not talk to each other and there is a communication gap.” The other theory is that young players either disappear from the system or start playing for public sector sides, where competition is much harder. “I think the structure we have in Odisha is fine till the junior level,” says coach Amulya KR Behera. “But after a certain age, they all go to public sector companies. The other story is many of them play till they are 18-19 but given some of them are very poor, they go outside (the hockey spectrum).”

This comes as news because apart from being a very traditional hockey centre, the Odisha government have invested time and money into the sport. They have spent close to `90 crores to get the World League Final (2017 December) and the World Cup (2018 December). But Mohanty actually blames the state government for not doing enough. Will they be able to get their youngsters to the next level? The next few years will tell.Tuesday’s results: Hockey Odisha 3-2 Central Secretariat, Punjab National Bank 5-2 ONGC.