Heart of Punjab: Once a leader in sports, Jalandhar struggles to keep pace with time

Once known as the “Sports Capital of India”, Jalandhar is fast losing its tag. The city once boasted of top sports facilities like Asia’s first government sports college and Burlton Park, where international and Ranji Trophy cricket matches used to be played till the mid-1990s.

After Punjab’s second cricket stadium came up in Mohali in 1993, Burlton Park was completely ignored.

The stadium, which was the venue of an India-Pakistan Test match in 1983 and India-England ODIs in 1991, has not even witnessed domestic cricket in years.

It is only used for practice sessions by the local youth.

A Rs 100-crore plan finalised in 2009-10 to convert the 70-year-old stadium in the heart of the city into a sports hub remains on paper only.

Even cricketer-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, who had started his career from the ground, has failed to give the much-needed impetus to the project in three years since joining Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Government Sports College, which had come up in 1961 with the vision of then CM Partap Singh Kairon and had produced hockey players of the likes of Surjit Singh and Harcharan Singh and athletes like Ishar S Deol and Jagdeep Singh, has been largely reduced to a centre for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in physical education and a postgraduate diploma in yoga.

“These are not the courses which our players now require. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had in 2021 announced that this college would be developed as India’s biggest sports university. If at all, they intend to do that, they should first bring in the best dieticians, psychologists, physiotherapists, sports injury experts and equipment like hypoxia tents and vacuum treadmills,” said a prominent athletics coach of Punjab.

“The courses should be in tune with time such as sports biomechanics or sports anthropometry,” he added.

If experts are to be believed, the reason for slipping of 25-time winner Guru Nanak Dev University to the third position for Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy is the fall in standards of sports facilities and training in Jalandhar.

“GNDU affiliated colleges in Jalandhar such as HMV College and Lyallpur Khalsa College had been feeding players to the varsity. This is where the drop has actually started. It has become a serious matter,” said a renowned sports buff.

The only solace for Jalandhar is that the country’s top four players in the hockey team are from Mithapur and Khusropur villages here.

Sansarpur village near Jalandhar Cantonment, which was a “cradle for Indian hockey”, has not been able to produce any Olympian after 1980.

Likewise, Government Girls’ School at Nehru Garden, which produced Arjuna Award recipient Ajinder Kaur and Olympian Rajbir Kaur too had closed its girls’ hockey wing in 2015.

“If there is one national-level event being played in Jalandhar even now, it is due to the efforts of Surjit Hockey Society, which has relentlessly worked for the grooming of players,” said a veteran hockey players.

“But much more is required in hockey. Jalandhar has three AstroTurfs at Surjit Hockey Stadium, PAP and Vajra Corps grounds. All three turfs are green and not blue as per the new international standards. Here is again where Jalandhar is falling behind,” said the veteran hockey player.

Hockey Olympian and now Congress MLA Pargat Singh said more than infrastructure, there is a need to work comprehensively on the available human resource.

“As per studies, the best age to work on a player’s body coordination and agility is 3-8 years. Once this age is crossed, some physical corrections are never possible. We have not even thought of going down to groom that age group,” he said.