The Hindu: Where hockey had ruled the roost

Sumit Bhattacharjee

Visakhapatnam

Steps afoot in the city to restore past glory of the game

About four decades ago, the port Gymkhana ground in the One Town area was the most happening place. It was the hub of all sporting activity in the city, and hockey, national game of the country, ruled the roost.

The Gymkhana grounds produced over 120 hockey players, who represented Andhra University (then its jurisdiction was from Vijaywada to Srikakulam), the AP State and senior and junior nationals. A couple of them like Mallik even played for the senior internationals, said Peter Das, former national player, who played alongside the mercurial Indian star Dhanraj Pillay in the Olympic and Asian game camps. From about 1960s to late 1980s, hockey was the most popular sport in the city and in the district.

Young lads jogging down to the Gymkhana grounds in the evening was a common sight.

It was only after the 1983 win in the Prudential World Cup that cricket started seeping in. And finally, the introduction of Astroturf and Vizag not taking the lead in having an Astroturf, killed the sport. “Today, we are nothing but the shadow of our past,” said Noel Treasure, secretary of Friends Hockey Association.

While lack of Astroturf or proper hockey grounds is one issue, the dwindling patronage towards the game was another.

“There was a period when we had at least 20 hockey clubs (apart from the organisation teams) in the city and a regular league was played. Today, we barely have five clubs and it is close to two decades that the last league season was conducted,” said Peter Das.

A few old timers and former hockey players have now embarked on a mission to regain the game’s past glory in the port city.

Friends Hockey Association has taken the lead to start a competition for the schoolchildren and the Chitta Ranjan Memorial Hockey tournament (Chitta Ranjan was national hockey player and captained Andhra University team and the Andhra State Hockey teams during 1975-1981).

Ravi Shankar, president of FHA, said, “competition is the most important thing to keep any sport going. And with that idea we have started both competitions about two years ago.”

In the last Chitta Ranjan Memorial tournament that was held in Vizag steel plant hockey grounds, six teams had participated and Eastern Naval Command team defeated FHA to lift the cup.

“We want more teams to participate and the league format should be revived. The government should also focus on the game’s development. In Hyderabad there are at least two Astroturf grounds and in AP we have none,” said Peter Das.