It was in mid – 1955 that I was transferred from Gorakhpur to Nainital as Additional District Magistrate Incharge of Nainital District. During my long acquaintance with hockey I have never seen a place where almost the entire town would gather to see a match. Now as the local tradition would have it, a part of the Nainital Hill feel down thousands of years ago and occupied a part of the Nainital Lake. When levelled, that part came to be known as Flat. It contained a hockey full-fledged ground, a restaurant and a tennis court. Hockey ground, of course, was gravelled (bajri) one. It used to be watered and rolled intensively before the matches. It was very fast ground and the players had to be cautious because a fall would mean deep bruises.

I used to go to the Collectorate and to Court in the forenoon. This was enough in a district where crime was virtually unknown and where revenue and land record system was primitively simple. As in Bijnore and Bulandshahar, I assembled a hockey team from the Collectorate’s staff in Nainital. We played hockey to our fill and witnessed some very fast matches. The match that stands out in my memory is our battle against U.P. Police team. On all accounts a team representing U.P. Police should have trounced us. Local loyalties swelled the crowd further for this match. The Police Team was being encouraged from the side lines by Islam Ahmad, the Director General of U.P. Police. The match got etched in my memory because against all anticipation we beat the redoubtable Police Team by 2-1. I hopped to score the winning goal from my centre-forward position. The goal was very much like the goal which I later witnessed the Pakistan’s centre-forward Rasheed score against India at the National Stadium. This was sc ored despite two defenders’ sticks trying to block it.

Kumaon Hills have plenty of hockey talent. They are similar in this aspect to Jharkhand where Adivasis are natural hockey players. It is a pity that we are unable to groom hockey talents in Nainital to its full stature. I remember Bijawat Brothers who, given an opportunity, had the calibre of representing their county. But this is a tale which applies to many budding players who wither either because of lack of opportunities or lack of support or lack of fairness on the part of selectors.

Switching over again to the current scene, the Jawaharal Nehru Hockey Tournament series consisting og girls tournament, Junior and Sub-Junior Boys Tournament and the Main Hockey Tournament commenced in October and ended in the last week of November, 2000. It was not eventful because it clashed with some other tournaments which deprived the Main Tournament of some of the best teams. It is indeed a pity that although efforts are being made for the last about five years, the Shivaji Stadium has not been able to get a synthetic parts, the original having been worn-out. It seems to me that although Government are paying considerable attention to promotion of games and have established a Ministry of Sports, the planning and the facilities at the grass-root level are deficient and the games by the large are being mismanaged.