Sponsors should come forward to promote hockey: Tirkey

2 Feb 2009, 1906 hrs IST, PTI

CHANDIGARH: Former India captain Dilip Tirkey on Monday said more sponsors should come forward to promote hockey, which also needs a ‘touch of glamour’ to make it appealing to the youth.

“I feel that to give a boost to hockey more sponsors should come forward. If a touch of glamour is added to our sport, like so much hype goes with cricket, it will appeal and draw more youth to it,” 31-year-old Tirkey said on the sidelines of a book release function.

Tirkey praised the way the Indian team has been playing of late after it touched its lowest ebb last year.

“We performed well in the series against Argentina and now in the four-nation Punjab Gold Cup, we are giving a good performance. What we need is to maintain consistency, which will help us when bigger tournaments come up ahead,” he said.

Indian hockey team’s coach in-charge Harendra Singh said his wards were improving with each game and exuded confidence that they will win the Punjab Gold Cup, which besides the hosts, features Olympic Champions Germany, European Champions Holland and New Zealand.

“I think from here on we are only going to improve further. Only thing is that we will need to maintain consistency,” Harendra said.

Hockey writer K Arumugam released his “Hockey Year Book 2008” in the presence of Tirkey, Harendra, IOA’s ad-hoc committee convener, Aslam Sher Khan, former Olympian Col (retd) Balbir Singh and others.

“The book is a compendium of statistics and a chronicle of current events,” its author said.