By K. ARUMUGAM

It’s International Women’s Day, isn’t it? Let’s then organize a hockey festival. We will let the women and girls in our wonderful fraternity play in it to their heart’s content. Why should boys – who broke the hiatus caused by Covid-19 by playing chhota-mota tournaments — have all the fun when it comes to our lovely sport?

It’s not just a fleeting thought as you drive or a hold a discussion in a room while sipping chai.

It’s actually a thought process, that translated on to proceedings on the ground and within days turned into Work In Progress. 

We are talking about a non-stop 12-hour, 6 AM to 6 PM hockey festival. You could call it a Dawn to Dusk carnival that had been staged at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium in Egmore, Chennai, yesterday.

The organizing unit’s name says it all –We are for Hockey Club.

The ‘We’ in the Club intend two message: One, an unifying spirit for general public, and secondly, a 15-former players of Tamil Nadu as core, who, significantly, represented the State at the National Championship.

Most of them may have left playing serious hockey as age told and times changed. But the spirit to be with the sport they loved so much continued – and by all accounts and impressions is growing on the logarithmic scale.

They assembled 15 clubs on Sunday and had great fun. Something like London’s vintage Folkstone Festival.

“We got many requests from other clubs in the State for participation. But we had to restrict it to 15 to complete the event in a day,” says Ms. J. Rekha, the proud president of the movement with a catchy name and supported by worthily run women’s club in Chennai.

The jubilant hockey enthusiasts

These 15 teams came from Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengleput districts.

Format-wise, it involved 9-a-side teams with each match of 30 minutes duration. The event was non-stop, especially for the organizing girls – they refuse to call themselves women – who boast of not even taking a lunch break.

The highlight of the show, as the writer understands, is that everything was managed by the ‘girls’ themselves, including planning, conduct of the event, mobilizing resources etc.

These include not only event management but also generating monetary resources to the tune of, say, Rs.1 lac and two sponsors for getting a gift for the participating teams. Many members of the Club too did their bit in donating money.

And there’s a message in all this — The We are for Hockey Club is for players by players and of players. The hidden spirit of course is keep the flame of hockey, lit in us when we were young, alive.

Organizers in a joyous mood, a befitting International Women’s Day event in Chennai

That’s why perhaps the Club has youngest member aged 32, and the oldest, 50. Two among them even attended the Indian national camp in their heyday. Goalkeeper Rajeswari and Sheela Sukumaran, both from City’s famous Vaishnav College.

The ‘Keep Alive the Flame’ spirit is certainly evident in one case, that of Rafna Antony, 32, who is still a State player. Yet another instance proving that age is no bar to pay a sport.

The event certainly served one purpose – that of opening the gates for girls to assemble and sense hockey again after the pandemic struck about a year ago.

The girls too had their share of fun with a promise they will continue to have more in the coming days.

Organizing a women’s hockey event in Tamil Nadu, especially in Chennai befits the contemporary hockey scene. It’s the only provincial unit in the Hockey India set up where a woman is functional secretary of a State Hockey Association. The unique off-track feat rests with Renukalakshmi, an Indian Railways trade unionist, and a dynamic hockey admino. 

Winners take it all – Scenic Bird Hockey Club. Hockey mascot of Madras, V. Baskaran is also present

Rekha and her team profusely congratulate Renuka for her support and motivation.

No less is the part played by all-weather hockey mentor Vasudevan Baskaran, the face of 1980 Moscow Olympic gold, who heads Chennai Hockey Association nowadays.

Rekha, an entrepreneur herself, is slightly perturbed that most of the potential sponsors did not evince interest. They are ready for other sports like cricket etc.I think that’s because of the image of our national game. Its always portrayed as a poor man’s sport”.

“The image makeover for hockey is important. The message should go out that our hockey is for every section of society”

That’s a tall order, but every hockey aficionado’s ambition in India.

Some of the ‘girls’ from the We are For Hockey Club hail from sporting families but not definitely hockey. By supporting hockey, these ‘girls’ proved to be off-track.

But we can all say they are on right track.

THE WINNERS