Roshan Minz, a rare striker from Sundargarh

Sudheendra Tripathi,TNN

MUMBAI: Besides being one of the few districts to boast of three artificial turfs, Sundargarh is also famous for giving Indian hockey some great defenders — Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Ignace Tirkey, Prabodh Tirkey and William Xalxo.

So, when you come across Roshan Minz, another Sundargarh product, the inevitable question is why is he scoring goals and not defending. Minz is a rare striker from Sundargarh.

“I started off as a defender,” Minz informs. “I grew up watching Lazarus Barla and Dilip Tirkey. Obviously my first preference was to become a defender,” he adds.

How did the transformation from a defender to a striker happen then?

“In the year 2001, I had come to play the Junior Nehru hockey tournament in Delhi. And as luck would have it, the strikers in our team were unfit. So the coach asked me if could play up front. I did. And after the tournament finished, I walked away with the ‘player of the tournament’ award. I never looked back ever since,” Minz, who scored in Indian Oil’s 5-1 win over Indian Navy in the Guru Tegh Bahadur hockey tournament at the Mumbai Hockey Association ground on Monday, recalls.

“Having started off as a defender helps in analyzing the rival defender. I can pre-empt how he will move. It helps me dribble past the rival defender efficiently,” says Minz.