Poor Olympic hockey show hits manufacturers

Anju Agnihotri Chaba

Having pinned great hopes on the Indian Hockey team during the London Olympics 2012, the teams bottom-place finish has left Jalandhar hockey manufacturers in shock and are now shying away from openly declaring that they were the hockey manufacturers for the Indian Hockey team. Jalandhar is home to over 70 big and small hockey manufacturing units.

Some companies had sponsored a few players on the team in a bid to drum up business, but it seems their plans have backfired. Sports Forum President Sanjay Kohli of Rakshak firm, one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of Hockey sticks and accessories, said that it was the worst ever performance by the Indian Hockey team and that the blame lies with the internal politics of the selection committee.

“For the past three days we have shut our eyes and ears as people pass comments on us. Now we have started saying that we don’t manufacture only hockey items,” Kohli revealed. “We will face heavy losses nationally and internationally in the coming months. We get orders from several countries but they first see performance of our hockey team,” he added.

Another hockey manufacturing company, Vijayanti firm, which supplied hockey paraphernalia for some of the members of “Chak De India” movie including its star Shah Rukh Khan has been staying away from giving any comment on hockey.

“We had a big chance to transform hockey from an institutional game to a popular one, but we lost it due to poor selection procedure. India could have revived its glorious past in the game,” said Ravinder Dheer, another leading manufacturer of sports goods.

sansarpur: Once a Hockey mecca

Once known as the mecca for hockey which produced 13 players that went on to play hockey in the Olympics, 16 international players and 150 national players and unaccountable college-level players, Sansarpur village in Jalandhar district has very little to cheer about. Locals, who once had a great passion for the sport are now turning towards cricket. “Sansarpur used to have many players in the Olympics squad of hockey team but now we hardly know the names of the players of the present team,” said Gurmit Singh, a village local.

Sansarpur Hockey Academy (SHA), formed in 1926, produced five Arjuna awardees including late Udham Singh Kullar, Jagjit Singh Kullar, Balbir Singh Kullar (Punjab police), Col Balbir Singh (services) and Ajit Singh Kullar, who is also Padam Shree and was the captain of the Indian Hockey team in 1975 during the World Cup and 1976 Olympics. The village had four to five players in every Olympic squad till 1980 but today the situation is quite the opposite.

Villagers even said that the downfall started after the 1976 Olympics owing to government apathy towards the national game. “It should not be considered a national game after 1976 owing to poor facilities being provided to this game,” said a Sansarpur local.