National Sports Day: Despite producing Olympians, city lacks basic hockey infra

The country is celebrating National Sports Day today, which is dedicated to hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, but the day highlights the lack of seriousness on the part of the state government towards making serious effort to resume hockey in the border district.

Termed a nursery of hockey in the border districts, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy has been closed for the past nearly two years, which means no activities are being organised to promote the game. Moreover, the sole AstroTurf ground on the Guru Nanak Dev University premises has already been in tatters over the years.

Without government support, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy has been serving the national game in the border districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur. The academy produced three Olympians — Shamsher Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Dilpreet Singh — and nearly four international, including Dilpreet Singh, over 150 national players.

Otherwise, Amritsar has consistently produced exceptional players for the national hockey team, contributing stars to both the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. Despite this remarkable contribution, the city lacks a dedicated AstroTurf for training its young talent. The one at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), installed in 2008-09, has been closed since 2023 due to its deteriorating condition, and neither the Centre nor the state government has committed to fund nearly Rs 7 crore required to install a new one.

Amritsar has produced four key players for the Indian men’s hockey team in both the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics, where the team clinched bronze medals on both occasions — an unprecedented achievement of two consecutive Olympic medals.

Among these players are local stars Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Shamsher Singh and Jugraj Singh, who represented India in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Similarly, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Amritsar contributed five players to the men’s national team and one to the women’s team, including drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur.

One of the founders of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy, Balwinder Singh Shammi along with his wife Sukhjit Kaur Shammi, Maninder Singh Palli, Jagroop Singh, Amarjit Singh used to impart training to youngsters. All former international hockey players, employed with different government departments, were imparting training free of cost. Shammi, during his seven-year-long eventful international career, played in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, two World Cups in London, 1986, and Lahore in 1990, 1986 Asian Games, Asia Cups in Dhaka and Delhi.

Their endeavours were financially supported by Sahil Sandhu, Dr Avtar Singh and DIG Sukhminder Singh Mann and helped in the establishment of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy.

He said there was a huge potential in the players from Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts. There are several villages, including Attari, Mehta, Sathiala, Butala, Timowal, Marar, Pakharpura and Chahlan in the area, where hockey had been adopted as a folk culture.

He felt that apart from a good sports environment in the city, players required excellent infrastructure and proper coaching. There was only one AstroTurf at Guru Nanak Dev University in the city, which needed to be replaced with a new one. In this scenario where should the budding players go for practice.

Despite Amritsar’s impressive track record of producing hockey talent, the lack of proper facilities, including an AstroTurf, hampers the development of future players. Experts believe this oversight is detrimental to the city’s hockey prospects and calls for urgent attention from the government.

Veterans have been demanding at least two AstroTurf fields in Amritsar to meet the growing demand for high-level training. Olympian Brigadier (retd) Harcharan Singh stressed the importance of artificial turf for training, saying, “In modern-day hockey, practicing on artificial turf is not just important, but a critical factor for success. However, it is up to the government to decide on laying AstroTurf, which costs around Rs 7 crore. There should at least be two AstroTurf surfaces in Amritsar alone for the players.”