Guwahati, April 27: Not cricket or football, but it’s now the turn of hockey, the country’s national sport, which is being given due emphasis in Assam.
It was long overdue though and Assam Hockey is leaving no stone unturned to pick talented players and, more importantly, catch them young!
In sync with Hockey India’s visionary initiatives to take hockey to the remote parts of the country and oversee the development of the sport at every level, Assam Hockey, for its part, has been organising a series of district-level tournaments to develop hockey culture across the state and provide opportunities for children to showcase their talent and swiftly come up the ranks.
Notably, Hockey India had recently unveiled the “Hockey India ka Abhiyan Har Ghar Ho Hockey Ki Pehchan” programme, according to which, the governing body of hockey in India will work closely with its member units and their respective district associations with a focus on hosting regular coaching camps and intra-district competitions to scout and nurture young talents.
Providing a detailed account of how the state hockey association was leaving no stone unturned to develop and professionalise hockey in the state, Assam Hockey general secretary Tapan Kumar Das said the association has a tie-up with the State Level Advisory Committee for Students and Youth Welfare, Assam (SLAC) for the development of hockey at every level in Assam.
“In order to make the game popular in the state, we have started distributing hockey equipment in various districts of Assam. We have already covered 13 to 14 districts so far which include Kokrajhar, Tinsukia, Chirang, Baksa, Goalpara, Darrang, Udalguri, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji,” Das said.
He revealed that the SLAC, in association with Assam Hockey, would provide hockey coaches to every district to ensure that children get proper training and can hone their skills.
Das stated that around 5000 youngsters are currently part of hockey coaching camps in Assam and all of them are being provided with refreshments every day.
“We are committed to improving our training programme and for the same reason we are in the process of providing hockey coaches to every district. Most of the shortlisted coaches are senior level players and they belong from different states such as Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh,” the Assam Hockey official said.
“Currently, there are around 5000 trainees that are part of hockey coaching camps for junior and sub-junior levels across the districts of Assam,” he informed.
“A state team coaching camp is underway at present and altogether 137 girls are taking part. So far, we have already shortlisted players for three teams out of which one team has been formed for junior national championships, while the other two teams will be prepared for exposure tours,” Das said.
“As of now, we are hosting hockey tournaments in 28 to 29 districts in Assam and later this year, we are aiming to organise zonal tournaments at the district level and under-14 state championship for both boys and girls to scout as much talent as possible.”
He went on to laud Hockey India for coming up with a plethora of initiatives at the district level to encourage youngsters to not only take up the game but also make a career out of it.